UMHAUSEN. From February 17th to 18th, the finals of the GRM Group Luge World Cup on Natural Track will take place in Umhausen (AUT), and the premises before the last runs, who traditionally were held as night runs, couldn’t be more thrilling.
At the men’s event, Thomas Kammerlander (AUT), who currently ranks first in the overall standings with a lead of 25 points ahead of the defending champion Patrick Pigneter (ITA), could be the first Austrian to win the World Cup since the season of 2002/2003: If he manages to stay in front of the Italian serial winner on his home track in Umhausen, Kammerlander is the new champion. Pigneter, in turn, who has won the last eleven World Cups in a row, has not only to win the race in Ötztal but also has to hope for a slip-up of Kammerlander, since the second rank is also enough for the Austrian to win the World Cup. Therefore, especially Pigneter’s teammate Alex Gruber, who ranks third in the overall standings and still has theoretical chances to win the World Cup trophy, may play a crucial role in this competition.
At the women’s event there’s gonna be a duel, too: Evelin Lanthaler (ITA) ranks first with a lead of 30 points before the last race, but runner-up Greta Pinggera (ITA) has shown great performances recently – she emerged victorious in Železniki (SLO) as well as in Deutschnofen (ITA), and she also managed to win the gold medal at the women’s event of this year’s World Championships in Vatra Dornei (ROU). If Pinggera also triumphs in Umhausen, Lanthaler has to rank at least second to defend her title. Tina Unterberger (AUT), in turn, can race without pressure in Umhausen: The Austrian athlete, who has a lead of 103 points over Sara Bachmann, will at least rank third at the end of this season.
Even closer than the overall standings of the men’s and the women’s event are the overall standings of the doubles’ event: Only five points separate the leading serial winners Patrick Pigneter/Florian Clara (ITA) from the Russian runner-ups Pavel Porshnev/Ivan Lazarev. The Italian pairing stood on top of the podium in every season since 2007/2008 – with only one exception: In 2011/2012, the Italians were beaten by exactly the same Russian athletes that are their strongest competitors this year. The primary goal for Christian Schopf/Andreas Schopf (AUT), however, is to secure their third rank in the overall standings – with only ten points less, the Russians Aleksandr Egorov/Petr Popov are close behind the Austrians.
So everything is set for thrilling races in Umhausen. The finals will be decided on Saturday evening.
LINK live stream:
http://www.fil-luge.org/de/live-streaming-naturbahn-1
Program
Thursday, 16.02.2017:
13.00 Technical Official Meeting
14.00 Team Captain’s Meeting
16.00 1. training run doubles
afterwards 2. training run doubles
18.15 1. training run women
afterwards 1. training run men
Friday, 17.02.2017:
14.00 2. training run women
15.00 2. training run men
16.20 qualification run women
17.30 qualification run men
18.45 qualification run doubles
afterwards award ceremony Nation’s Cup women, men, doubles
Saturday, 18.02.2017:
15.00 final run doubles, afterwards flower ceremony
16.00 final run women, afterwards flower ceremony
16.45 final run men, afterwards flower ceremony
18.15 team competition, afterwards flower ceremony
19.00 award ceremony women, men, doubles, team
21.00 award ceremony overall World Cup women, men, doubles, team, nations
afterwards After-race-party in the pavilion with the Pfunds-Kerle
