Nations Cup victories for Ulla Zirne, Pavel Repilov and Bots / Plume in Sigulda (LAT)

Sigulda (FIL) Two times Latvia and one time Russia won the FIL Nations Cup. Ulla Zirne, Pavel Repilov and the double Martins Bots / Roberts Plume were the fastest on Friday, January 8, 2021 in Sigulda, Latvia.

In the best ice conditions and minus two degrees on the only artificial luge track in Baltikium, 25-year-old Ulla Zirne won at home with a running time of 42.295 seconds ahead of her teammate, 20-year-old local hero Elina Vitola (+0.200) and 21-year-old US-American Ashley Farquharson (+0.062). Winner Zirne said after the race, "It feels good winning a run at the home track. But we all know that the big race is coming on Sunday. This was a good competitin run to test the equipment. The run itself was good, but the start was bad. I want to improve my start to be even faster on Sunday." For a long time on the podium was the Ukrainian Olena Stetskiv, who showed a good race run and ended up in fourth place (+0.297).

In the men's race, two generations met on the podium. The 18-year-old Russian Pavel Repilov won in 48.144 seconds ahead of the local hero Gints Berzins (LAT/+0.362) and the 39-year-old Jozef Ninis from Slovakia (+0.371). Pavel Repilov, brother of World Champion Roman Repilov, was happy about his first Nations Cup victory: "It was a great race today, with good ice conditions. I could have been even faster, but had small mistakes in the upper part of the track. It's always fun to race against Gints Berzins. We are the same age and have always competed already in juniors." Chris Eissler from Germany (+0.507) and Reinhard Egger from Austria (+0.518) followed in fourth and fifth place.

In the Nations Cup of the doubles, the young local heroes Martins Bots and Roberts Plume were the fastest in 41.884 seconds. Roberts Plume was happy: "It is an honor to win at home. Sigulda is our home track so of course we had a little advantage. But we did what we set out to do and we won!" The winners of the previous week at Königssee Robin Geueke and David Gamm from Germany, finished second (+0.105) ahead of the Russian team with Vsevolod Kashkin and Konstantin Korshunov (+0.118). Robin Geueke praised the track shape and the ice in Sigulda: "The track here is in a super condition. It is very good to luge and the ice was very fast today. We already had the times from last year's World Cup in today’s the Nations Cup." The American double Chris Mazdzer and Jayson Terdiman finished fourth (+0.393).

Through the Nations Cup, which is run in one heat, athletes qualify for the EBERSPÄCHER World Cup and the 52nd FIL European Championships on Saturday and Sunday. The fastest twelve female and double athletes as well as the fastest 15 men of the last three World Cup races are seeded and do not have to go to the Nations Cup for qualification. For them, there will be the training of the seeded group as the last run before the World Cup and the European Championships on the artificial track in Sigulda, Latvia, on Friday, January 8, starting at 14:30 local time.

Detailed results and further information about the 6th EBERSPÄCHER Luge World Cup, the 52nd FIL Luge European Championships and of course about the Nations Cup can be found under the following link: https://www.fil-luge.org/en/multimedia/eberspaecher-world-cup-4

On Saturday, January 9, 2021, the World Cup and European Championship races will start at 11:30 a.m. (local time Latvia / CET+1) with the men's singles.

All World Cup races can be followed in the FIL live stream at: https://video.fil-luge.org/index.html