Koenigssee (pps) Prior to the 39 th World Luge Championships in Igls on February 2- 4, 2007, the German “Three Tracks Tour” will be carried out as a prologue for the Worlds. First event of the “Three Tracks Tour” is the Viessmann Luge World Cup in Koenigssee next weekend (January 6-7, 2007), followed by the World Cups in Oberhof (January 12-14, 2007) and Altenberg (January 19-21, 2007).

Germany’s Silke Kraushaar-Pielach and Armin Zoeggeler (Italy) have been the most dominating athletes in the first part of the 2006-07 season with the first four events of the Viessmann Luge World Cup in Cesana Pariol (Italy), Park City (USA), Calgary (Canada) and Nagano (Japan). The doubles’ events were marked by the seemingly everlasting duel between Christian Oberstolz-Patrick Gruber (Italy) and Patric Leitner-Alexander Resch (Germany).

While both teams are tied for first place in the overall rankings, Silke Kraushaar- Pielach and Armin Zoeggeler both celebrated three victories. Thus, the 2002 and 2006 Olympic champion Zoeggeler joined Austria’s Markus Prock and Georg Hackl of Germany as the only sliders ever to record 33 victories in the Viessmann Luge World Cup.

In the women’s event Sylke Otto remains the record winner with a total of 37 victories, but in her last season the two-time Olympic champion (2002 and 2006) is still waiting to score her first win. By the way – on November 29, 1997, Austria’s Andrea Tagwerker managed the last victory of a non-German athlete in the women’s single event in Koenigssee. In the now 30-year long history of the Viessmann Luge World Cup Koenigssee will host its 26 th World Cup event.

Record winners in the doubles’ events are Germany’s Stefan Krauße-Jan Behrend, boasting a total of 27 victories, followed by Hansjoerg Raffl-Norbert Huber (Italy/26) and Leitner-Resch (25). “In the past five years we went undefeated on our home- track. And we intend to keep it that way”, Patric Leitner announced. However, Christian Oberstolz-Patrick Gruber, winners of the first two World Cup events in Cesana Pariol and Park City, will certainly want to give them a hard time.