Home victory tastes especially sweet for Steu/Koller

Innsbruck (FIL) Thomas Steu and Lorenz Koller took a huge load off their shoulders. After the first run of the doubles race at the EBERSPÄCHER Luge World Cup in Innsbruck-Igls, the two Austrians were still 0.001 seconds behind Andris and Juris Sics. But in the second run they turned the tables, passing their Latvian rivals by 0.022 seconds. "It was cool that the catch-up worked so well," front man Steu was pleased, "we always manage to get things going towards the race." Back man Koller added in delight at the tenth World Cup win, "We're just the coolest."

On the other hand, Andris Sics was a little surprised at the finish. "We luged well, we don't know where we lost the time," said 36-year-old luger from Sigulda. When he stood up, the helmsman couldn't believe his eyes: "I had already thought that the one would light up." But on the only 870-metre short track in Igls it is always close, the smallest mistakes have big consequences. What was important for him, however, was that they were able to gain a little breathing space in the overall standings against Toni Eggert/Sascha Bennecken, because the Germans only finished 13th after a mistake at the starting corner. "We scored important points, now we want to win the overall World Cup," said Juris Sics, "because we had never held the big ball in our hands before."

Emanuel Rieder and Simon Kainzwaldner had big grins. The Italians had finished on the World Cup podium for the first time in their career. And thus solved the Olympic ticket. "It's a relieving feeling," said Rieder. Their internal competitors Ivan Nagler and Fabian Malleier had dropped back to sixth place after the third-fastest run in the first run. Right behind the young Austrian double Juri Gatt and Riccardo Schöpf. In between were the Olympic Champions Tobias Wendl/Tobias Arlt from Germany. "The three doubles on the podium clearly raced better," cox Wendl judged appreciatively.     
 
Detailed results and further information on the 5th EBERSPÄCHER Luge World Cup in Innsbruck-Tyrol can be found under the following link: https://www.fil-luge.org/de/ergebnisse/eberspaecher-weltcup-12