Italy’s Kevin Fischnaller is surprise winner in Winterberg

Winterberg (RWH): Kevin Fischnaller of Italy has celebrated his first ever Viessmann World Cup win amidst classic Winterberg weather conditions. As light snow and rain fell around the track in the Hochsauerland region of Germany, the cousin of World Championship bronze medallist Dominik Fischnaller made the most of his low starting position for the first run to achieve the best time of the first heat. On his second run, the 2012 Junior European Champion – who was racing as number 11 – managed to defend his place at the top and thus secured his best result since he finished third at the 2014/2015 BMW Sprint World Cup in Innsbruck. Second place went to Felix Loch (GER), ahead of Stepan Fedorov (RUS).

Fedorov, who won in Winterberg in the winter of 2015/2016, and Chris Eißler (GER), who came out on top the year before, are now joined by Kevin Fischnaller to form a group of surprise winners in Winterberg. All three of the athletes made the most of the adverse conditions at the track to secure their first Viessman World Cup wins.

Following the second of 13 events in the Viessman World Cup tour of the Olympic season, Felix Loch and the Russian Semen Pavlichenko (fifth place in Winterberg) have 155 points each and are currently leading the overall standings in the Viessmann World Cup. Kevin Fischnaller is in third with 142 points.

Quotes

Kevin Fischnaller (ITA / Junior European Champion in 2012 and tenth at the 2017 World Championships):

“I was not really that nervous between the two heats. I was expecting the track to give way a lot on the second run so I wouldn’t be in with a chance of winning. I just wanted to go out there and give a good run. I am so surprised. I never in my life expected to win; I would have been happy enough with a top ten result.”

Felix Loch (GER, two-time Olympic Champion and five-time World Champion):

 “That was a great race. Kevin deserved the win. He really made the best of his starting position on the first run. We know that he’s a great luger and he did a good job of defending his lead on the second run. I’m very happy with second place.”

Stepan Fedorov (RUS / winner in Winterberg and eighth in the 2017 World Championships):

“I like the Winterberg track. On my second run, I had a couple of problems on curve six and on the Kreisel, which meant I lost a lot of time.”