Germany quartet wins finale – Russia and Italy crowned overall winners

Königssee (RWH) For the first time in its history, the Viessmann Team Relay World Cup presented by BMW has been won by a nation other than Germany, although the defending champions did win the season finale with the line-up of Anna Berreiter, Felix Loch and Toni Eggert/Sascha Benecken. Following a dramatic final race on the artificial ice track in Königssee, the Russian and Italian teams topped the overall standings with a score of 431 points apiece after the season’s six races.

The Russian squad of Viktoriia Demchenko, Semen Pavlichenko and Vladislav Yuzhakov/Iurii Prokhorov finished third in Königssee, while Italy finished tenth. Both teams finished the season with the same score. The Italian doubles duo of Ivan Nagler/Fabian Malleier made an error with  overall victory in sight but managed to cross the line to finish last with their team mates Andrea Vötter and Dominik Fischnaller.

Second place in Königssee went to the US team featuring Summer Britcher, Tucker West and the doubles pairing of Chris Mazdzer/Jayson Terdiman. Defending champions Germany finished third in the overall standings with 415 points.

In keeping with tradition, next winter’s Viessmann World Cup will kick off in Innsbruck on the last weekend of November 2020 and finish in Korea’s PyeongChang County in February 2021. The season highlight, the 50th World Championships of the International Luge Federation (FIL) will be staged in Whistler, Canada from 4 to 6 February 2021.