Winterberg (pps) At the sixth stop of the Viessmann Luge World Cup on the artificially refrigerated track in Winterberg Corinna Martin of the local luge club “BSC Winterberg” celebrated her first career victory in the World Cup series. Thus, the 2010 European runner-up is the first Winterberg World Cup winner since Jana Bode, who claimed a victory in 1996. It was Jana Bode, too, who was the last luger of Winterberg who won in front of a home-crowd in 1994.
With a combined two-run time of 1:54.543 minutes Martini defeated compatriot and Olympic Champion Tatjana Huefner (0.167 seconds behind) to second place. Olympic bronze medallist and three-time World runner-up Natalie Geisenberger (0.314 seconds behind) completed Germany’s clean sweep on the podium. Anke Wischnewski on fourth place (0.432 seconds behind) then rounded off the quadruple success of Germany’s women lugers.
After six of nine World Cup events Tatjana Huefner is still on top of the overall rankings with 540 points, ahead of Natalie Geisenberger (465 points) and Canadian Alex Gough (410 points), who posted a fifth-place result in Winterberg.
Gough’s young teammate Arianne Jones claimed sixth place and thus earned her career best result in in the World Cup series. Former World Champion Erin Hamlin (USA) finished in seventh place.
Quotes
Corinna Martini (GER / 2010 European runner-up; bronze medallist at the 2003 and 2004 Junior World Championships)
“I’m at a loss for words. It’s absolutely overwhelming to have won in front of my family and friends. My sister had tears in her eyes and then so did I. The first run was picture perfect. Then I bounced a bit in the second – but the important thing is that I won.”
Tatjana Huefner (GER / 2010 Olympic Champion, 2007, 2008 and 2011 World Champion)
“Right in the first run I made a mistake at the start and then another in the lower part of the track. Every now and then I’ve made mistakes, last year too. But in the meantime the other competitors have caught up with me and I cannot really afford to make so many mistakes any more.”
