Tobias Paur (ITA) left his mark on the 14th Junior World Championships in natural track luge on Winterleiten (AUT). The 19-year-old takes home three gold medals.

Three gold medals for Tobias Paur (ITA)

Winterleiten (FIL/02/11/2024) You can’t do better! Just 24 hours after Tobias Paur won the gold medal in the doubles competition with his partner Andreas Hofer (ITA), Paur climbed the standings in the junior‘s singles. After the first run on Saturday, the Italian from Castelrotto was in seventh place, in the second run on Sunday morning he improved to second place with the second-best time. In the third run, Paur set the best time of the day and took the lead with a total time of 3:18.27 minutes. His teammate Anton Gruber Genetti (ITA) completely botched the last section of the track and slipped to third place in the final standings, behind local hero Leon Auer (AUT), who started the final run from fifth position.

Podium men's singles (from left): Leon Auer (AUT), Tobias Paur (ITA) and Anton Gruber Genetti (ITA)

“I really can't believe it, everything went smoothly today. The track was slower due to the snowfall, but my equipment was extremely fast,” said Paur, praising the work of the Azzurri coaching team.

Riccarda Ruetz successfully defends her title

Defending champion Riccarda Ruetz (AUT) showed a really solid performance in the women's singles. She set the best time in two of the three runs, and in 3:18.64 minutes the Tyrolean was crowned Junior World Champion 2024. Silver medal for Tina Stuffer (ITA), who was in fourth place after the first run on Saturday. With third place, Jenny Castiglioni (ITA) won her first medal at a Junior World Championships.

Juniors World Champion 2022 and 2024: Riccarda Ruetz (AUT)

“My goal was to defend the titel. Today it wasn't easy to adapt to the wet conditions. But it was the same for all runners,” analyzed Ruetz.

Podium women's singles (from left): Tina Stuffer (ITA), Riccarda Ruetz (AUT) and Jenny Castiglioni (ITA)

Head-to-head racing in the team competition

The title fights on the 940 meter long natural luge track came to an end with the team competition on Sunday afternoon. The favorites Italy and Austria fought an extremely exciting head-to-head race, in the end Italy (Stuffer/Paur) took the gold medal in 2:21.07 minutes, ahead of Austria (Ruetz/Auer) and Germany (Schiller/Streit ). For Paur it was the third gold medal at this Junior World Championships 2024.

Podium team competition (from left): Austria (Auer/Ruetz), Italy (Paur/Stuffer) and Germany (Streit/Schiller)

Results women’s singles
1. Riccarda Ruetz (AUT), 3:18.64 minutes
2. Tina Stuffer (ITA), +1.55 seconds
3. Jenny Castiglioni (ITA), +2.86

Results men’s singles
1. Tobias Paur (ITA), 3:18.27 minutes
2. Leon Auer (AUT), +0.80 seconds
3. Anton Gruber Genetti (ITA), +1.12

Results team competition 
1. Italy (Tina Stuffer/Tobias Paur), 2:21.07 minutes
2. Austria (Riccarda Ruetz/Leon Auer), 2.21,25
3. Germany (Sarah Schiller/Vincent Streit), 2.26.69

Medal table for the 2024 Junior World Championships
1. Italy 3/1/3
2. Austria 1/2/0
3. Slovakia 0/1/0
4. Germany 0/0/1