Lake Placid (pps) In Calgary, Silke Kraushaar was impeded by the wind, Armin Zoeggeler by tonsillitis. But despite these mishaps the 1998 Olympic champion in women’s luge and the 2002 Olympic champion in men’s single left their marks on the first four events of the 2003-2004 Viessmann Luge World Cup.
Germany’s 2002 Olympic bronze medallist Silke Kraushaar won three out of the four events held so far. Prior to the 5th Viessmann Luge World Cup on Friday and Saturday (December 19-20) at Lake Placid the 2003 World silver medallist is runner-up to teammate Sylke Otto in the overall standings, just 13 points behind Otto in spite of her wind-impeded eighth place at Calgary.
Italy’s four-time World champion Armin Zoeggeler won the first two events at Sigulda and Altenberg before his winning series was stopped by tonsillitis. After finishing second in Calgary and seventh in Park City, he still leads the overall standings by 79 points.
Several new faces took the opportunity to get on the podium. Germany’s 21-year-old two-time World junior champion David Moeller achieved his first victory at Calgary. Zoeggeler’s room-mate Reinhold Rainer, 30, stepped into the breach for his fellow-Italian at Park City with his first ever World Cup win. American Tony Benshoof (USA) showed a consistency so far unknown to him with three third-place finishes at Altenberg, Calgary and Park City, and Germany’s Denis Geppert missed his first World Cup success only narrowly when finishing runner-up at Park City.
Though Austria’s reigning World champions Andreas Linger-Wolfgang Linger won the first two doubles events at Sigulda and Altenberg, Germany’s 2001 World champions Andre Florschuetz and Torsten Wustlich could make their comeback to the top in Calgary after a two-and-a-half-year drought. The Americans Mark Grimmette and Brian Martin, who were forced to miss from the first three Viessmann Luge World Cup events due to a slipped disk of Grimmette, delighted their country-men by winning in Park City thus making the competition in the doubles even more exciting. Germany’s Olympic champions Patric Leitner-Alexander Resch are leading the World Cup standings after three second-place finishes with 301 points followed by Linger-Linger with 294.