Julia Taubitz on track to continue German women’s winning streak

Oberhof (RWH) Julia Taubitz is marching purposefully towards her first overall Viessmann World Cup victory. The 2019 World Championship runner-up took a double win in Sigulda last weekend to overhaul Russian slider Tatyana Ivanova at the top of the World Cup standings. With three more events of the racing series to go – Oberhof (February 1-2, 2020), Winterberg (February 22-23, 2020) and the finale in Königssee (February 29 – March 1, 2020), the 23-year-old luger has a great chance of continuing Germany’s line of overall winners in the women’s discipline. For the last 21 years, the winner of the final classification in the Viessmann World Cup has been German.

At her home race, the adopted native of Oberhof who lives in Thuringia, hails from Annaberg-Buchholz and competes for the WSC Erzgebirge Oberwiesenthal club, wants to build momentum ahead of the 49th World Championships of the International Luge Federation (FIL) in the Russian city of Sochi (February 14-16, 2020). She also hopes to increase her current cushion over Tatyana Ivanova, which stands at 13 points after nine of 12 events.

The other leaders going into the next round in the Thuringian Forest are Roman Repilov (RUS) and Toni Eggert/Sascha Benecken (GER). Repilov, who was the overall winner in the 2016/2017 season, is the current yellow jersey holder with 653 points. He is followed in second place by Italian Dominik Fischnaller (595), with Repilov’s compatriot Semen Pavlichenko (524) in third. Record-breaking World Champion Felix Loch (GER), who has previously won the Joska crystal trophy on six occasions, is out of the running for overall victory as his deficit is 286 points with only three events remaining.

World Champions Toni Eggert/Sascha Benecken of Germany lead the overall doubles classification on 722 points ahead of Olympic Champions Tobias Wendl/Tobias Arlt (GER) with 662 points. Brothers Andris Sics/Juris Sics (LAT) are now third on 526 points.

Olympic Champions Germany are still waiting for their first win of the season after three of six races in the Viessmann Team Relay World Cup presented by BMW. World Champions Russia won the season opener, while European Champions Italy took the win in Altenberg. The Austrian squad celebrated their first ever team relay win in Lillehammer to succeed Italy as European Champions.