Wien (pps) After two test competitions held at Königssee and Winterberg with outstanding success, the International Luge Federation (FIL) is now enhancing the value of the team relay competition. The new team competition, which was successfully tested during the 2006/2007 season, will be part of World Championships for the first time at the 40th FIL World Championships in Oberhof from January 25 to 27, 2008. This was recently decided by the FIL Executive Board at its spring meeting in Vienna. The reduction of participants in the second run, which was tried for the first time at the 2007 World Championships in Igls, Austria, will also be applied for the 2008 World Championships in Oberhof.
Furthermore, four team relay competitions will be staged at Lake Placid, Winterberg, Königssee and Sigulda.
As an additional measure within its development program, the FIL Executive Board under the leadership of FIL President Josef Fendt (Berchtesgaden) decided on the creation of an ad hoc working group „Strategy Natural Track Luge“ chaired by Vice-President Alfred Jud from Italy.