Olympic Champions Wendl/Arlt win in Oberhof – World Champions Eggert/Benecken close in on overall victory

Oberhof (RWH) Germany’s Toni Eggert and Sascha Benecken have all but sealed a second overall victory in the Viessmann Luge World Cup, following on from their success in 2014/2015. By taking second behind the Olympic Champions Tobias Wendl/Tobias Arlt (GER) at the seventh Viessmann World Cup of the season in Oberhof, the current World Champions are almost certain to claim overall victory at one of the two final events in PyeongChang, Korea, on 18-19 February 2017, or in Altenberg on 25-26 February 2017. 

Eggert/Benecken currently have a 167-point lead over Olympic Champions Tobias Wendl/Tobias Arlt. Even if they win both of the two remaining events, the three-time World Champions will still be unable to overtake their rivals because Eggert/Benecken will receive two allocations of 17 points simply for competing in both races, even if they finish 24th and last. In this configuration (two wins for Wendl/Arlt and two 24th places for Eggert/Benecken), the final score would be 974 to 973 points in favour of Eggert/Benecken. The current score is 940 points to 773.

Third place is currently occupied by the USA’s pairing of Matt Mortensen/Jayson Terdiman (543), who finished eighth in Oberhof, ahead of fourth-placed Robin Geueke/David Gamm (GER / 531), who came third in Oberhof.

Quotes

Tobias Wendl (GER / 2014 Olympic Champion / three-time World Champion and two-time European Champion)

“World Championship silver in 2008 was our first major success here in Oberhof. We always find it hard to get going here, but things tend to work out pretty well in the race, as you can see. We should have done enough to secure second in the World Cup standings now.”

Toni Eggert (GER / World Champion 2017, World Championship silver medallist 2012, 2013 and 2016, European Champion 2013 and 2016)

“Wendl and Arlt did a really good job here, with two excellent runs. Unfortunately we made a mistake at the start on our first run. We didn’t want to take any risks in terms of the overall World Cup.”

Robin Geueke (GER / World Championship fourth 2016 and World Championship third in 2017)

“Third place is great for us, as Oberhof isn’t one of our favourite tracks. We’re now just twelve points away from third place in the World Cup standings.”