UMHAUSEN. Only a few days after the 27th FIL European Championships on Luge on Natural Track have ended, there’s already the next highlight for the lugers coming up: From February 15th to 17th 2018, the finals of the GRM Group Luge World Cup 2017/2018 take place in Umhausen (AUT), where the overall winners of the season will be determined. Since everything is still open in all categories, the athletes have to fight for every point.

At the men’s competition, Thomas Kammerlander (AUT) is going to be the one to beat: The Austrian, who won two gold medals the week before at the European Championships in Obdach-Winterleiten (AUT) and therefore gained a lot of confidence for the World Cup finals, currently has a lead of 15 points over runner-up Alex Gruber (ITA). So Kammerlander has everything in his own hands and can defend his title with one more victory at his home track in Umhausen, while Gruber, in turn, has to hope for a slip-up of the Austrian. The same goes for Patrick Pigneter (ITA), who ranks third in the overall standings.

At the women’s event, Evelin Lanthaler (ITA), who currently is in the lead of the overall standings with a margin of 15 points to runner-up Greta Pinggera (ITA), wants to reclaim the title. To achieve this – and to prevent a similar outcome to last season when she threw away the overall victory in the very last run – she has to finish the race ahead of her team colleague in Umhausen, while Pinggera herself necessarily needs a win if she wants to defend her title. The main goal for Tina Unterberger (AUT), in turn, will be to secure the third rank, since the Austrian has no chance to catch up with the Italians anymore.

At the doubles, the fight for the overall World Cup victory is as good as over: With a lead of 85 points, Patrick Pigneter/Florian Clara (ITA) only need to finish in the points in Umhausen to win the title. Apart from that, everything is still open, several pairings still have the chance to win one of the much-desired World Cup trophies – among them the Austrians Rupert Brüggler/Tobias Angerer as well as the Russians Aleksandr Egorov/Petr Popov, who both have the same amount of points and currently share the second rank in the overall standings.

The winners of this World Cup season will finally be determined on Saturday, February 17th 2018, the decisive runs are scheduled to start at 3 pm.

Link live-stream:
http://www.fil-luge.org/de/live-streaming-naturbahn