Winterberg (pps) Pierre Ducrey, the official observer for the International Olympic Committee, IOC, called the team event at the 40 th European Luge Championships at Winterberg, Germany, an “interesting event“. “I learned a lot“, the Swiss said. According to Ducrey, the IOC will decide about the inclusion of the team event in the Olympic Programme for the 2010 Winter Games in Vancouver, Canada, at the latest by the end of this year.

The IOC sent Pierre Ducrey to Winterberg as an observer since bad weather had prevented IOC Sports Director Kelly Fairweather from scrutinising the team event at this season’s final at Koenigssee, Germany, on January 7.

Germany won the sixth successive European team title at Winterberg. Silke Kraushaar, Patric Leitner-Alexander Resch and David Moeller beat Italy (Anastasia Oberstolz-Antonova, Christian Oberstolz-Patrick Gruber and Armin Zoeggeler) and Latvia (Anna Orlova, Andris Sics-Juris Sics and Martins Rubenis) into second and third place respectively.