UMHAUSEN. On Saturday, February 18th, the last races of this year’s GRM Group Luge World Cup on Natural track were held in Umhausen (AUT). After the runs, the World Cup Champions of the season 2016/2017 were presented.

At the men’s event, Thomas Kammerlander (AUT) was victorious: The Austrian not only won the race at his home track in Umhausen but also the overall World Cup and thus dethroned the Italian serial winner Patrick Pigneter (ITA), who had stood on top of the podium after the end of every season since 2005/2006. “We’ve worked hard for this victory for years, and now we finally made it,” Kammerlander said after the thrilling race. The fact that he could receive the World Cup trophy at his home track made the victory even more special for the Austrian, who managed to keep his nerves in the last race: “I wasn’t really nervous, no, I was confident,” said Kammerlander, who was more than one second faster than his strongest competitor from Italy. Pigneter, who ranked second in Umhausen, couldn’t help but acknowledge the Austrian’s performance: “I knew it would be hard to race against Thomas on this track, and I gave my best – but Thomas dominated the race from the beginning. In the end, he was the best athlete this season, and therefore he earned to win the World Cup.” Alex Gruber (ITA), who ranked third in Umhausen as well as in the overall standings, agreed with his teammate: “Thomas was the most consistent athlete, and he deserves the victory,” said the Italian World Champion, who was also satisfied with his own performance this season.

At the women’s event, Greta Pinggera (ITA) was victorious: The newly crowned World Champion, who had shown great performances especially in the second half of this season, won the race ahead of Tina Unterberger (AUT) and Evelin Lanthaler (ITA) and thus managed to win the World Cup – but it was more than close: Before the race in Umhausen Pinggera had 30 points less than her leading teammate Lanthaler, but after the race the two Italians had the same amount of points. And since their amount of first, second and third places was also identical, the ranking in the final competition was the decisive factor – and so Pinggera emerged victorious. “I’ve never expected to outpace Evelin. I thought I’d have nothing to lose but also nothing to win in Umhausen, and so I was quite relaxed before the race. Evelin surely had much more pressure,” said Pinggera, who had a perfect season. “Sure, I was also a bit lucky, even today. But we also experimented with the equipment and we risked a lot, and that payed off eventually.” Lanthaler was of course disappointed after the race: “I’m a little bit upset now, sure: In training as well as in the qualification everything went well, but in the final run everything went wrong. It just wasn’t my day,” said the World Cup Champion of the last season. Unterberger, however, who ranked third in the overall standings, couldn’t be happier: “It was my best season so far, never before I’ve reached the podium that often.”

At the doubles’ event, Pavel Porshnev/Ivan Lazarev (RUS) won the race in Umhausen and thus managed to outpace Patrick Pigneter/Florian Clara (ITA) in the overall standings. For the first time since 2011/2012, when they were also beaten by Porshnev/Lazarev, the Italian serial winners are not on top of the podium after the season. “We were quite optimistic, and we hoped to outpace Pigneter and Clara,” Lazarev said after the race. “In the first run we had to go to the limit, and we had a good run. Our lead was big enough, so we weren’t forced to risk too much in the final run.” In the end, the Russians were 44 hundredths faster than the Italians. “That’s a great way to end this season. It’s not easy to beat Pigneter and Clara,” Porshnev said. The Italians lost the battle for the World Cup not least because of their performance in the qualification: “We messed up the first run,” said Pigneter, and his Partner Clara added: “Our final run was good, but just one good run is not enough. Anyway, we’re nevertheless quite satisfied, and we will attack again next season.” The World Champions Rupert Brüggler/Tobias Angerer (AUT) rank third in the overall standings: Due to their second rank in Umhausen, the Austrians were able to outpace their competitors in the final straight: “We’ve made the impossible possible,” Brüggler said, and Angerer added: “This was the cherry on the cake of this season.”

At the team competition, the Italian squad triumphed once again: Alex Gruber, Greta Pinggera and Patrick Pigneter/Florian Clara won the race ahead of the Austrians Thomas Kammerlander, Tina Unterberger and Rupert Brüggler/Tobias Angerer, while the Russian team with Aleksandr Egorov, Ludmila Astramovich and Pavel Porshnev/Ivan Lazarev came in third.

Results:
http://www.fil-luge.org/en/multimedia/grm-group-luge-world-cup-on-natural-track-4

Overall standings:

http://www.fil-luge.org/en/overall-scores?event_season_id=15