Second victory in the second World Cup for Michael Scheikl (AUT). The Austrian also on Saturday was one of a kind at the FIL Luge World Cup on natural track in Winterleiten (AUT). In the team competition, Italy took the win.

The Styrian Michael Scheikl dominated - as on Thursday - the World Cup on his 940 meter long home track. With the best time in both runs Scheikl celebrated his second win of the season in 2:01.43 minutes, improving his track record from Thursday by around 0.30 seconds in 1:00.52 minutes. Patrick Pigneter (ITA) took the second place, but was already 1.31 seconds behind the winner. Third place for Alex Gruber (ITA / + 1.36 sec.). For the World Champion it was the first podium in this World Cup season. Local hero Christian Schopf (AUT), who was second on Thursday, finished on fourth place on Saturday.

Austrian Michael Scheikl celebrating after his 2nd victory in Winterleiten 

“This is the best start to the season of my career, I'm really happy. With the third win here in a row, I achieved the Winterleiten-triple. That's really cool“, said Scheikl, who now clearly leads the overall standings with a maximum of 200 points, ahead of Patrick Pigneter (155) and Christian Schopf (145).

Italy strikes back in team competition
In the team competition, Italy still had one bill open from last January. At that time the Azzurri were in the lead after Evelin Lanthaler's run, but their teammate Patrick Pigneter crashed into the boards and his luge broke. Lanthaler/Pigneter fought back on Saturday, celebrating a clear victory in 2:06.35 minutes ahead of Team Austria with Michelle Diepold and Michael Scheikl (+2.75 seconds) and Team Germany with Sarah Schiller and Oliver Schiller (+3.85) . In Winterleiten, Germany repeated third place in the team competition from the 2019/2020 season.

(from left) Michael Scheikl/Michelle Diepold (AUT), Patrick Pigneter/Evelin Lanthaler (ITA) and Sarah Schiller/Oliver Schiller (GER)
 

In the final team competition, only six nations were at the start, due to the Corona restrictions. A total of eleven nations were present at the World Cup opener in Winterleiten, 13 teams were missing. I.e. the team from Russia will be back again at the double World Cup in Passeier (ITA) from January 14th to 17th, 2021.