Lots of surprises in the final BMW Sprint World Cup

Sochi (FIL) At the end of the two World Cup weeks in Sochi, the men started the BMW Sprint World Cup with a surprise. Dominik Fischnaller (Italy) had to race again with the sled of his team mate Leon Felderer, because the material boxes from Beijing still haven't arrived and still he was the fastest in 34,833 seconds - with track record!

In the end he was 0.039 seconds ahead of the Russian Roman Repilov, who, by the way, also starts with a rental sled. Former World Champion Wolfgang Kindl from Austria came in third, only 0.050 seconds behind.

Kristers Aperjods, who had secured the first World Cup victory for a Latvian the day before, was eighth, 0.104 seconds behind. Johannes Ludwig was only two places better. The German had finished second in the EBERSPÄCHER World Cup race and remains at the top of the overall standings.  

The result of the doubles also had something surprising in store. The Russian duo Andrej Bogdanov and Iurii Prokhorov only finished sixth, 0.173 seconds behind the Latvian brothers Andris and Juris Sics. The sprint specialists from Sigulda set the fastest time in 31.385 seconds ahead of Aleksandr Denisev/Dmitrii Antonov (+0.038 sec.) and Robin Geueke/David Gamm (Germany/+0.068). "We are looking forward to every sprint, but we also want to do well in the normal race," said front man Andris Sics.

With so much unforeseen in the women's race, Summer Britcher also wanted to do her bit. "I had a little pressure before the sprint because I made a few mistakes in the World Cup race," she revealed, "but I managed a very good run." The 27-year-old US American finished second 0.021 seconds behind Julia Taubitz. The 25-year-old German thus had a perfect day after her success in the EBERSPÄCHER World Cup with the BMW Sprint victory. "I hadn't thought about this victory," admitted Taubitz, "when the 1 lit up, I just thought: awesome, cool." The leader in the overall World Cup thanked the ice masters for the very good conditions at the track in Sochi. Taubitz's team-mate Dajana Eitberger came in third, 0.032 seconds behind. Her good form was underlined by Latvia's Kendija Aparjode in fourth place (+0.036).    

The results in detail can be found here: https://www.fil-luge.org/de/ergebnisse/bmw-sprint-weltcup-22