Defending champions are the top favorites in the upcoming 45th season
Innsbruck-Igls (pps) The luge World Cup series is heading into its 45th season. The traditional season opener of the Viessmann Luge World Cup will be staged on the Olympic track in Innsbruck-Igls (Austria). A total of 31 nations and 160 sleds have entered the first event of the season on November 24-25, 2012.
The women’s singles on Saturday (November 24 / start at 10:00 hrs local time) is the first event of the pre-Olympic winter, followed by the doubles (12:30 hrs). On Sunday’s schedule (November 25) are the men’s singles (10:00 hrs) and the Team Relay Event (13:30 hrs) that will celebrate its première at the 2014 Olympic Winter Games in Sochi. The defending champions Tatjana Huefner, Felix Loch (both of Germany) as well as Andreas Linger-Wolfgang Linger (Austria) are also the top favorites in the upcoming luge season.
Tatjana Huefner is following in the footsteps of Sylke Otto, the most successful female luge racer of all time. So far, the 29-year old Huefner has won one Olympic gold and bronze medal each, four World Championship titles (plus two gold in the Team Relay Event) as well as five overall victories in the Viessmann Luge World Cup series. This is why she is hot on the heels of her former teammate, Otto, who collected two Olympic and four World Championship titles (plus two gold medals in the former team event) as well as four overall World Cup victories in her career. Huefner‘s toughest opponents are European champion Tatiana Ivanova (Russia), Alex Gough (Canada) as well as compatriot Natalie Geisenberger.
And the men’s singles? The question as to who might be the top favorite seems to be a moot question when there’s a 23-year old luge athlete who already boasts a victory tally as long as the Milky Way. Felix Loch – Who else? - Seems to be the only correct answer. The German Olympic and three-time World champion as well as defending overall World Cup champion won six of the nine World Cup events as well as a World Championship gold medal last season, and will therefore be the hunted.
The contest in the doubles events between Austria and Germany is heading into the next round. In the pre-Olympic winter the Viessmann Luge World Cup series will thus see the sequel to the “double duel” of last season’s four most competitive teams. Two-time Olympic and three-time World champions Andreas Linger-Wolfgang Linger (photo, middle) and the current European champions Peter Penz-Georg Fischler (photo, right) will represent Austria. Germany has again entered the World silver medalists Toni Eggert-Sascha Benecken (photo, left) and the European runners-up Tobias Wendl and Tobias Arlt.
The German team is heading into the new season as the defending champion of the Viessmann Luge World Cup Team Relay Event. Germany won the overall World Cup rankings in the Team Relay Event with 540 points to their credit, followed by Canada (392) and Russia (385).
