Madeleine Egle makes a strong start to dominate

Oberhof (FIL/14 Dec 2024) Madeleine Egle benefited from her good start in the women's race at the EBERSPAECHER Luge World Cup in Oberhof. With a new start record of 7.546 seconds, the 26-year-old Austrian catapulted herself into the second run. The fact that she had already been informed of this by the track speaker during her run spurred her on, even though her lead decreased from intermediate time to intermediate time. In the end, she secured victory in 1:24.019 minutes. “Today I won the race with my start,” Egle also honestly admitted. 0.156 seconds was the lead after the two runs on her teammate Lisa Schulte, who was able to pass Julia Taubitz (Germany/0.175 seconds back) with a strong second run (42.060) and thus gave herself an belated birthday present. Lisa Schulte celebrated her 24th birthday on Friday, December 13. “I am overjoyed, especially since my training runs were not that good,” said World Champion Schulte, assessing her performance.

Julia Taubitz's feelings are best described as ambivalent. “It's wonderful to be sledding at home,” said the German, “but it hurts to lose to the Austrians like that in our own backyard.” Nevertheless, she recognized the achievements of Egle and Schulte without envy: “The two of them did a great job, so the result is okay.” The German head coach Patric Leitner agreed, but at the same time criticized his drivers. “The Austrians skied superbly. We are already too far behind Madeleine Egle at the start.” If you have such a lead in Oberhof, it's easy to win.

He also meant his driver Merle Fräbel, who was more than a tenth of a second slower at the start. At the finish, it was 0.337 seconds after the two runs. “I had hoped for more. Today I already failed at the start,” she said.

Behind Fräbel, the US luger Ashley Farquharson (0.407) came in fifth, ahead of Barbara Allmaier (Austria/0.526).