Winterberg (pps) Headed by the new men’s overall Viessmann Luge World Cup champion Armin Zoeggeler, almost the complete Italian Olympic team will skip the World Cup finals at Oberhof, Germany. Besides the men’s 2002 Olympic champion, Reinhold Rainer, the recent runner-up at the Viessmann Luge World Cup competition at Igls, Austria, Anastasia Oberstolz-Antonova and the doubles Gerhard Plankensteiner-Oswald Haselrieder, third at Lake Placid, USA, and Igls, have not entered the finals at Oberhof. They prefer to train on the Olympic track at Cesana Pariol for the Winter Games starting on February 10.

Only the doubles Christian Oberstolz-Patrick Gruber will compete at Oberhof, the site of the 2008 World Championships. The World Cup title holders are just ten points behind the current overall leaders, Germany’s 2002 Olympic champions Patric Leitner and Alexander Resch. Leitner-Resch have 526 points, Oberstolz-Gruber 516. Besides Oberstolz-Gruber, Italy will be represented by junior athletes at Oberhof.

Photo shows Reinhold Rainer/ITA