Sigulda (pps) Never before the old saying “every coin has two sides” sounded more true than prior to the 42nd FIL Luge European Championships in Sigulda, Latvia (January 23-24, 2010). Natalie Geisenberger of Germany, Armin Zoeggeler and Christian Oberstolz-Patrick Gruber (all of Italy) will not defend their titles but prepare for the 2010 Olympic Winter Games in Whistler, Canada. But even without last year's champions this will not be detrimental to the importance of the Europeans. “Already the day after the event no-one is interested any more who did not compete. European title is European title - they forever remain black-on-white on the statistics”, explained Switzerland's Sepp Benz, chairman of the sports commission of the International Luge Federation, FIL.
And the list of entries is quite impressive. Top favourite in the women's singles is Natalia Yakushenko who earned the bronze medal at the 2009 Worlds in Lake Placid and thus earned herself a name as contender of Germany's women. Additionally, the 37-year old went down in luge history on November 19, 2004 when she ended their winning streak in the Challenge Cup after 20 consecutive victories. Further medal candidates are Latvia's Maija Tiruma who has always shown a good performance on her home track and not to be forgotten – Austria's Nina Reithmayer, currently on fifth place in the overall Viessmann Luge World Cup as well as Veronika Halder, who earned her so far only medal two years ago in Cesana, Italy, when she finished third at the Europeans.
In the men's singles, Russia's Olympic runner-up Albert Demchenko, currently on second position on the overall rankings in the Viessmann Luge World Cup, seems to be the top contender for the European Championship title. Additionally, local hero Martins Rubenis - 2006 Olympic bronze medallist, 2003 World runner-up (in Sigulda) and third-placed at the 2004 Worlds - has always been in good shape on his home track. Austria is setting its hopes on World bronze medallist Daniel Pfister, his younger brother Manuel and the young talent Reinhard Egger. Germany will be represented by Jan Eichhorn, 2007 World bronze medallist, and Johannes Ludwig, after all on fourth place at the Olympic test event in Whistler in 2009.
Theoretically, it seems as if Austria's doubles' teams will “arrange” for the European title among themselves. Additionally, there are three red-white-red teams who will fight for the two remaining tickets to the Olympic Games: Olympic champions Andreas Linger-Wolfgang Linger, two-times World champions Tobias Schiegl-Markus Schiegl (1996, 1997) as well as Peter Penz-Georg Fischler. By the way – in 1982 Austria celebrated its last European gold medal in the doubles' events with Guenther Lemmerer-Reinhold Sulzbacher. However local heros Andris Sics-Juris Sics and 2008 World runners-up Tobias Wendl-Tobias Arlt of Germany, who failed to qualify for the Olympics, and could well thwart those plans.
Latvia's relay team is well prepared to successfully defend its 2006 European title on their home-track. Strongest contenders in the relay event are Austria and Russia. Germany, even with the best lugers to compete – already failed to grab a medal in Cesana.
