OBDACH-WINTERLEITEN. On the 29th and 30th of December, the first race of the Junior Luge World Cup season on Natural Track took place in Winterleiten (AUT). The youth series of the World Cup includes four races and will be held for the third time now. Last season, the overall rankings were won by the German Theresa Maurer (women’s competition), the New Zealander Jack Leslie (men’s competition) and the Polish pairing Rafal Zsuwal/Pawel Spratek (doubles).
There have been many participants at this season’s kickoff in Winterleiten: 70 athletes from 13 nations took part in the races. At the doubles’, the Austrians Fabian Achenrainer and Miguel Brugger were triumphant with a margin of 1,87 seconds, followed by Andriy Demchuck and Myroslav Lenko (UKR) – the Ukrainians have won a silver medal at the last FIL Junior World Championships in Latsch (ITA) and demonstrated their skills once more, this time in Winterleiten. Kirill Kravchuck and Aleksandr Zyrianov from Russia came in third after a good second run.
The women’s event has been a very close race: Daniela Mittermair from Italy won with 02:34.08 minutes and a margin of three hundredths, followed by the German Theresa Maurer – she, in turn, was only one hundredth faster than Camilla Singer (ITA), who came in third. Maurer, who had gained some experience at the GRM Group World Cup, was only on the sixth rank after the first run, but she managed to work her way up and reach the second place. For obvious reasons, she was happy after the race: “Concerning my training, the sixth rank would have been alright, but I wouldn’t have been pleased with it. In the second run I gave all I had, and I thought: If this works out, fine, and if it doesn’t, then it’s okay too. But now I’m happy that everything went well for me.” Apart from the Junior European Championships in Umhausen (AUT), Maurer’s main goal this season is to repeat her performance from the last season and to win the overall ranking in the Junior World Cup once again.
The men’s event was also a tough race: Florian Markt (AUT) came in second with 02:31.22 minutes and a margin of two hundredths, Jack Leslie from New Zealand came in third. But neither Markt nor Leslie stood a chance against Fabian Achenrainer (AUT) on this day: He was nearly a second faster than his compatriot Markt and won the race with 02:30.24 minutes. His victory at the men’s event as well as his triumph at the doubles’ event along with his teammate Miguel Brugger gave him a perfect start in the season.
The next race of the Junior Luge World Cup season on Natural Track will be held in the beginning of 2017: On the 4th and 5th of January, the athletes will be in Latzfons (ITA).
