In a gold rush Eitberger, Loch, Degenhard/Rosenthal and Eggert/Benecken race to World Championship title in the sprint

Oberhof (FIL, 27 Jan 2023) In Oberhof's winter wonderland, the first four of nine World Championship medals were awarded today in the sprint event in the LOTTO Thueringen Eisarena. With victories of Dajana Eitberger, Felix Loch and the doubles Jessica Degenhardt/Cheyenne Rosenthal and Toni Eggert/Sascha Benecken the German team celebrated a perfect start into their home World Championships.

With a quadruple triumph, the German women dominated the sprint race. Thuringia-born Dajana Eitberger won by a razor-thin margin ahead of her teammates Julia Taubitz (+0.001 sec.), Anna Berreiter (+0.028 sec.) and Merle Fraebel (+0.028 sec.). The two Austrians Madeleine Egle and Lisa Schulte finished in equal fifth place (+0.098 sec.). For the 32-year-old mother of an almost three-year-old son it is the first World Championship gold in sprint after three bronze medals.

In the men's race everything looked like a possible Austrian victory after the qualification in the morning, but in the end three-time Olympic champion Felix Loch played out all his routine and won ahead of Jonas Mueller (AUT, +0.073 sec.) and teammate Max Langenhan (+0.122 sec.). David Gleirscher (AUT, +0.195 sec.) missed the sprint podium with fourth place as well as Latvian Kisters Aparjods (LAT, +0.200 sec.) and brother Nico (+0.213 sec.). For 33-year-old Felix Loch it was the second victory in a Sprint World Championship after 2016.

Jessica Degenhardt and Cheyenne Rosenthal (GER) secured the premiere victory in the women's doubles sprint, which was held for the first time, ahead of Austria's Selina Egle and Lara Kipp (+0.016 sec.) and Italy's Andrea Voetter and Marion Oberhofer (+0.023 sec.). Places four to six went to Falkensteiner/Huber (ITA), Upte/Ozolina (LAT) and Forgan/Kirkby (USA). For the reigning World Champions Degenhardt/Rosenthal, who made luge history for the second time, it was the first victory this season.

Toni Eggert and Sascha Benecken left no stone unturned on their home track and won the sprint of the doubles with an advantage of seven thousandths ahead of their teammates Tobias Wendl and Tobias Arlt and the Austrians Yannick Mueller and Armin Frauscher (+0.069 sec.). The young Latvians Bots/Plume finished fourth, the Italians Rieder/Kainzwalder fifth. Orlamuender/Gubitz rounded off the excellent World Championship result of the Germans with sixth place. For the Thuringian express Eggert/Benecken it was the second Sprint World Championship title of their career. Olympic champions Wendl/Arlt are the only ones who have been on the podium at all six Sprint World Championships so far.

The 20 Thuringian school classes of the World Championship project “runners meet school” provided for special atmosphere at the track today, by supporting their respective nation in optically creative “costumes” loudly as fan blocks.

Voices:

Dajana Eitberger (GER): “I grew up here, this is my home track, and that is of course already an advantage, whereas this scenery and the event also bring an expectation. I tried to really drive everything down and this one thousandth advantage is really nothing. I had luck on my side today and have fought hard for it over the last few years, because quite often I've had to lose out.”

Julia Taubitz (GER): “The goal is a medal in both races, so I already achieved the first one and I am very happy with that. It takes a bit of the pressure off and I'm looking forward to attacking again tomorrow.”

Anna Berreiter: “Yes, now it's really getting started. Tomorrow we will really attack again. Now I'm really up for it. It was important to have this run away, to see how the mood is. I wasn't good this morning, but now in the afternoon it was really good.”

Madeleine Egle (AUT): “There were a few too big mistakes for a medal with me today, but the top three were in their own league today. However, my speed is there and I hope that I can improve a bit in both runs tomorrow.”

Felix Loch (GER): “The Austrians were really fast in the qualification run and I said to Max: 'We won't let them take that away from us. Now we're really going to smash it!' It's madness that there are now two of us on the podium.”

Max Langenhan (GER): “My run wasn't that good yet, but one always likes to take the sprint as a warm-up for Sunday. It's much more important that we managed a great team result, that Felix won. A German-Austrian-German podium is nice. The Austrians are very fast, you can't underestimate them.”

Jonas Müller (AUT): “After my crash in Sigulda this was a super comeback. Now everything is good again and I am overjoyed.”

Jessica Degenhardt (GER): “Today in the morning the qualification was really nice. Now in the afternoon it was more of a nail-biter because we had a little trouble at the start right away. But we won, so I don't want to complain for now and hope that it can continue like this tomorrow.”

Andrea Voetter (ITA): “I am really happy about bronze. It is a perfect start. We haven't raced so often from the lower starting altitude here in Oberhof, so it was a bit difficult, but I'm very happy. Tomorrow we will try to do a little bit better, but it won't be easy. The other girls are also really strong.”

Toni Eggert (GER): “We like the track very much. We are at home here, we feel comfortable here and ice master Andre Baecker always sets the profiles sensationally well. It's a great facility, a beautiful setting, it's really fun. But in the end we have to focus on the race, and we have to fight quite hard with the conditions. This snow drizzle was actually not so good for us, and that's why I hope the sun will shine tomorrow, then it will be easier.”

Tobias Wendl (GER): “We are very satisfied. We delivered a super race at the start, double victory for Germany - what more could you ask for. Toni raced a bit better out the bottom today and therefore deserved to win.”

Yannick Mueller (AUT): “We thought after qualifying that there was still some momentum coming from the others, that they hadn't shown everything yet. We are happy with the first World Cup medal for us. It can go on like this!“

The sprint results of the World Championship are available at the following link: https://www.fil-luge.org/de/ergebnisse/fil-weltmeisterschaften-16