Half-time in the men's race: Ludwig and Kindl already pull away

Johannes Ludwig, Picture Alliance

Yanqing (FIL) Johannes Ludwig lived up to his role as favourite. In the first of the four runs in the 1583 metre-long track of the Yanqing National Sliding Center, the winner of the overall World Cup set the fastest time in 57.063 seconds. At the half-time mark, the 35-year-old German was 0.039 seconds ahead of Wolfgang Kindl (Austria), who had set the fastest time of 57.430 seconds in the second run. Ludwig had already won the dress rehearsal in November at the EBERSPÄCHER World Cup in China.

"I don't see myself under so much pressure," Ludwig had said before the competition, "I achieved my target four years ago with gold in the relay and bronze in the individual race, everything else is an encore." However, if the Olympic victory were the encore, he wouldn't mind. Double World Champion Kindl will not make this easy for him. The 33-year-old was annoyed that he made a lot of small mistakes: "I have to try to slide better and more consistently." That's why Ludwig says: "Run  three and four are almost like a new race. The result can be mixed up again." Especially as he also analysed: "The rides were not one hundred percent clean yet."
 
Behind Ludwig and Kindl, Dominik Fischnaller (Italy/0.304 seconds behind) and two-time Olympic Champion Felix Loch (0.382) are already following with some distance, ahead of the two Latvians Kristers Aparjods (0.460) and Gints Berzins (0.622).   
The journey to the Olympic Games was tragic for Kevin Fischnaller. The 28-year-old Italian had a positive Corona test on Friday and had to leave the Olympic village immediately and move into a quarantine hotel. So far, he is the only luger who could not start because of a positive test.

photo: Picture Alliance