Preview 7th EBERSPÄCHER Luge World Cup in Winterberg (GER): Decision for small crystal globe in Sprint World Cup
Winterberg (FIL/07 Feb 2023) From Altenberg in Saxony, Germany, the World Cup entourage moves on to Winterberg, Germany, where the seventh EBERSPÄCHER Luge World Cup of the 45th FIL World Cup season 2022/23 will be held from February 10 to 12, 2023. In addition to the World Cup races, the third and last of this year's Sprint World Cups and thus the decision for the small crystal globes in the Sprint discipline is on the program on Sunday in the VELTINS EisArena.
This year's FIL World Cup final will also be held two weeks later in Winterberg, because the team around OC head Stefan Pieper have stepped in for Innsbruck-Igls, where the World Cup opener was originally planned for the end of November. Due to broadcasting overlaps with the FIFA World Cup in Qatar, there would have been no live TV coverage of the luge World Cup at that time. In consultation with the Winterberg Sports Center (SZW), the FIL had decided to stage the cancelled World Cup at the end of the season on February 25 and 26, 2023, in Winterberg. Thus, two luge World Cups will take place in the VELTINS EisArena within three weeks. “Our entire team is highly motivated to give everything for a great end to the season,” says SZW Managing Director Stephan Pieper “Everyone is fully behind it and will offer the best ice quality to the athletes twice within three weeks.”
A total of 126 athletes from 17 nations will be competing this weekend. 33 women's and 33 men's single-seaters as well as 10 women's and 20 men's double-seaters have registered. In addition to the World Cup races, the decision in the Sprint World Cup will be made on Sunday.
Decision for small crystal globes in the Sprint World Cup
In addition to the large crystal globes for the victory in the EBERSPÄCHER Overall World Cup, the FIL will also award small crystal globes for the overall discipline winners of the classic EBERSPÄCHER Luge World Cup (9 competitions) and the Sprint World Cup (3 competitions). This weekend, the decision in the Sprint World Cup will be made in Winterberg.
After the two sprint decisions in Innsbruck-Igls (AUT) and Park City (USA), Julia Taubitz (GER) was the only one standing on the podium twice in the women's competition and leads the ranking in the Sprint World Cup with 170 points ahead of Sprint World Champion Dajana Eitberger (GER, 131) and Madeleine Egle (AUT, 128). The double Vice World Champion from Oberhof also took the lead in the overall World Cup last week with 607 points ahead of her teammates Dajana Eitberger (582) and Anna Berreiter (509). In the men's event, only Italy's Dominik Fischnaller landed on the sprint podium twice and leads the sprint World Cup with 170 points, followed by Austrians David Gleirscher (145) and Wolfgang Kindl (113). The 29-year-old South Tyrolean also leads the overall World Cup with 605 points ahead of Felix Loch (496) and Wolfgang Kindl (453).
With six different doubles on two podiums, no favorite can be identified in the men's doubles. Austria's Yannick Müller/Armin Frauscher are leading the sprint ranking with 170 points followed by sprint World Champions Toni Eggert/Sascha Benecken (GER, 140) and their team mates Tobias Wendl/Tobias Arlt (134). The overall World Cup remains exciting: Eggert/Benecken with 615 points are only one point ahead of Wendl/Arlt (614) and Bots/Plume (525). The situation is different in the women's doubles: Both sprint victories of the season went to the young Austrians Selina Egle/Lara Kipp ahead of Andrea Vötter/Marion Oberhofer (ITA). Thus Egle/Kipp lead with 200 points ahead of Vötter/Oberhofer (170) and Britcher/Sweeny (USA, 120). In the overall World Cup, however, Vötter/Oberhofer have extended their lead with 700 points after their victory in Altenberg, followed by Egle/Kipp (615) and the World champions Degenhardt/Rosenthal (571).
The current standings in all rankings can be viewed here: https://www.fil-luge.org/de/gesamtstaende?event_season_id=30
Quotes:
Christian Eigentler, Head Coach Austria: “We have already been to Winterberg with our team during the preparations, but the conditions now will not be comparable. It is fortunately colder and more like winter now. Like every week, the cards are reshuffled, everyone has to adjust to the track and the conditions. Many of my athletes like the track in Winterberg very much, except David Gleirscher. We will give full power again and see what happens in the end. In any case, our goal is to be on the podium in all disciplines.”
Norbert Loch, Head Coach Germany: "It's slowly coming to the end of the season and it's getting more and more exciting in the Overall World Cup. The duel between Julia and Dajana will certainly be interesting. In Winterberg there are two races on the calendar, the classic World Cup and the Sprint. Thus World Cup points will be awarded twice. From a German point of view, I hope that Felix can make up some ground in the direction of Dominik Fischnaller. And I am looking forward to the duel of the long-time rivals Eggert/Benecken and Wendl/Arlt, who are only one World Cup point apart before Winterberg".
Daniels Fogelis, Team Chef and Coach Latvia: “From Winterberg we are expecting good results, we like this track and previous years we have had solid results here in Winterberg, but we will see how ot goes when we will start sliding on Wednesday. About Altenberg and Overall about this season, we are happy about our Latvian teams results, this year we have pretty young team and with results they have we could only be happy, it feels like they will have bright future ahead. For the last world cup events our goal is the be on podium and fight for top 3 places in Overall.”
Schedule & TV coverage
Local start time (=CET/MEZ)
Friday, 10. 02. 2023
09:00 FIL Nations Cup
14:30 Training seeded group
Saturday, 11. 02. 2023
09:15 Women’s doubles, 1st run
10:05 Women’s doubles, 2nd run
11:00 Men, 1st run
12:30 Men, 2nd run
14:00 Men’s doubles, 1st run
15:15 Men’s doubles, 2nd run
Sunday, 12. 02. 2023
10:20 Women, 1st run
11:50 Women, 2nd run
12:15 Sprint World Cup Men
12:55 Sprint World Cup Women
13:40 Sprint World Cup Men’s doubles
14:11 Sprint World Cup Women’s doubles
Subject to change without notice!
Link for Live TV coverage and FIL-Media Guide – information to all athletes:
https://www.fil-luge.org/de/multimedia
FIL-Studio: From 30 minutes before and after all races you will always find live interviews with the winners and background information about the races live in the FIL-Studio on our YouTube channel: FIL Luge - YouTube
