Many dignitaries attending the FIL World Championships in Innsbruck

Innsbruck (RWH) The 47th World Championships of the International Luge Federation (FIL) are attracting plenty of attention from the great and the good in the worlds of sport and politics. Karl Stoss, President of the Austrian Olympic Committee (ÖOC), and a recent recruit to the International Olympic Committee (IOC), watched the action on the Olympic ice track on Saturday. The serpentine ice track at the foot of the Patscherkofel is a crucial part of Innsbruck’s potential bid to stage the 2016 Olympics for which a feasibility study is currently underway.

The former alpine skier Stephan Eberharter, Olympic Champion in 2002 in the giant slalom, and three-time World Champion, had already paid a visit to the track to watch local hero Wolfgang Kindl emerge victorious from Friday’s sprint race.

Austrian defence minister Hans Peter Doskozil, whose remit also includes sports funding in the Alpine republic, has announced that he will pay a visit to the track on the final day.