Lake Placid (pps) Silke Kraushaar-Pielach has begun her farwell-tour with a victory. At the season’s opener of the Viessmann Luge World Cup at Lake Placid, the Olympic Champion from Nagano 1998 celebrated her 36th success.

Silke Kraushaar-Pielach won in a total time of one minute 28.865 seconds followed by her team-mates Natalie Geisenberger (1:29.163) and Anke Wischnewski (1:29.320). Places four and five went to Julia Clukey (1:29.379) and Erin Hamlin (1:29.444).

It was the 74th victory for Germany in a row since November 1997.

Quotes

Silke Kraushaar-Pielach (Olympic Champion 1998)

„I dedicate this victory to Hans Günther Berner, who died this week. He was the boss of one of my sponsors. Speaking about the race I’m very confident. I don’t think about the fact that this is my last season.”

Natalie Geisenberger (Junior World Champion 2004, 2006, 2007)

„I made mistakes at the top, in the middle and at the end of the second run. It was the worst run of the whole week. I was too ambitious. “

Anke Wischnewski (silver medalists at the Worlds 2007)

„The whole week was pretty bad for me, even the runs of the race have been bad, but I’m very happy with the third place.”