Whistler (pps) Andreas and Wolfgang Linger of Austria are simply a class of their own on the 2010 Olympic luge track. About 22 months after their second Olympic victory on the artificially refrigerated track at the Whistler Sliding Center, the current World doubles champions also won the Viessmann Luge World Cup. At the second stop of the World Cup series they defeated compatriots Peter Penz-Georg Fischler (0.244 seconds behind). Christian Oberstolz-Patrick Gruber (0.299 seconds behind) of Italy finished in third position.

Penz-Fischler already won the season opener on their home track and with a total of 185 points to their credit, they are still heading the overall Viessmann Luge World Cup rankings, followed by Linger-Linger (170 points) on second place. Russia’s Vladislav Yuzhakov-Vladimir Makhnutin (127 points) are ranked third – after their second place in Innsbruck-Igls they had to make do with an eighth place in Whistler.

Quotes

Andreas Linger

(AUT / 2006 and 2010 Olympic champion, 2003 and 2011 World champion) “It’s simply great to come back to where you were successful once and then take first place again. The atmosphere here is great and we like the track. Well, if they would change the start just a little bit it would be perfect.”

Peter Penz

(AUT / 2004 junior World champion) “That’s a great result for us. Already in training we realized that it would be difficult to beat the Linger brothers on this track."

Christian Oberstolz

(ITA / 2008 European champion)

“A third place - that sounds good. But as far as our lag to first place is concerned – that’s far too much.”