FIL-President Josef Fendt came to visit the aqotec World Cup race at the Urals and patiently answered all the questions of the Russian media. “I am very happy to be here in this region for the first time, where I know that there is a huge interest in natural track luge”, said Fendt and said repeatedly how important for the international development the cities location on the Asian continent is. “It is our goal to have natural track luge included in the Olympic program by 2018. To achieve this, the World Cup here at the Urals is an important step and Russia is a valuable partner. I am very pleased to see that the political leaders of this region have a real commitment for the sport. I have had a first meeting with the Sports Minister earlier today in Yekaterinburg and tomorrow he and I will meet the Governor of the Sverdlovsk region.”
The Russian media was also very interested in the sponsors of the World Cup and wanted to know which trades aqotec, Zauner and Trenker represent. The also visiting representative of aqotec, Josef Pabinger, explained about their heating systems. The interest in heating systems was quite understandable considering the local temperature close to -30C.
The Russians also asked President Fendt how he would handle the extreme cold. He said: “When I left Germany it was -8C there, but I knew what to expect. My wife made sure that I brought some special cold protection facial crème with me.”
