Oberhof (pps) An impressive biathlon World Cup in Oberhof has hardly ended when the next top event in Thuringia’s winter sports centre is already looming around the corner. The track in Oberhof, the world’s second-oldest after Koenigssee, has been renovated last autumn with next year’s World Championships already in mind. After the junior World Cup in December, the upcoming 6 th event of the Viessmann Luge World Cup on January 13-14, 2007 will be a last test for the World Luge Championships.

After the renovation of the ice labyrinth, the track in Oberhof promises new records in all three disciplines. Silke Kraushaar-Pielach’s record (41.206 seconds) set up last season has gone down in history as a “record for eternity”. Germany’s most dominating athlete in the women’s single in the 2006-07 season intends to continue her winning streak with four victories in five races. Additionally, Kraushaar-Pielach wants to take the gold medal on her home track. The 1998 Olympic champion is in top position on the overall ranking (485 points), being 100 points ahead of her competitors and she seems to be on the brink of winning the overall World Cup for the fifth time after 1998-99, 2000-01, 2001-02 and 2005- 06.

In the men’s singles five-time overall World Cup champion Armin Zoeggeler (Italy) is still waiting for this 34 th victory in the Viessmann Luge World Cup which would put him ahead of record-winners Markus Prock of Austria and Germany’s Georg Hackl (all with 33 World Cup victories each). Zoeggeler, currently boasting 445 points, is determinedly aiming for his sixth overall World Cup victory. He is leading the overall rankings ahead of David Moeller (Germany/375), Albert Demchenko (Russia/304), Stefan Hoehener (Switzerland/272) and Italy’s Reinhold Rainer (272).

Germany’s Patric Leitner-Alexander Resch have taken a 3-2 lead in the seemingly everlasting doubles’ duel with their opponents from Italy, Christian Oberstolz-Patrick Gruber. Leitner-Resch, who came 6 th at the 2006 Olympic Games, are currently heading the overall World Cup rankings with 470 points ahead of Oberstolz-Gruber (455) and Olympic champions Andreas Linger-Wolfgang Linger (280) of Austria.