Whistler (pps) It was on their fifth attempt that the dream of winning a World Championship gold medal came true for Germany’s Tobias Wendl-Tobias Arlt. At the 44th World Championships of the International Luge Federation (FIL) in Whistler, Canada, the doubles team from Bavaria finally claimed the long-awaited title. At the same time they dethroned the defending champions Andreas Linger-Wolfgang Linger of Austria who won the gold medals at all the season’s highlights since 2010. After their 2010 Olympic gold medal and two World Championship titles in 2011 and 2011, the team of brothers had to settle for the bronze medal this time. Germany’s European Champions Toni Eggert-Sascha Benecken of Germany claimed the silver medal.
In the past years Wendl-Arlt have always been one of the top World Championship favorites but – apart from their silver medal at their World Championship debut in 2008 – they always went away empty-handed. The overall 2010-2011 World Cup Champions who have won five out of seven Viessmann Luge World events in the pre-Olympic season, thus claimed Germany’s first World Championship gold medal in the doubles since 2008 when the team of André Florschuetz-Torsten Wustlich won gold at the Worlds in Oberhof, Germany.
Wendl-Arlt dominated both runs on the 2010 Olympic track. Setting a start as well as track record (3.243 and 36.347 seconds) in their first run, the two 25-year olds lived up to their pre-race favorites tag. After two runs they secured a winning margin of exactly 0.200 seconds. Even when Tobias Arlt’s start number briefly got lost of the second run never lost their calm.
The Canadian doubles team with Tristan Walker-Justin Snith claimed a fourth-place finish. It was the best World Championship result for the hosts in the doubles event.
The complete result lists can be downloaded at www.fil-luge.org
Quotes
Tobias Wendl (GER/ 2013 World Champion, 2008 World silver medalist, overall World Cup Champion in 2010-2011)
“After our bad luck at the past World Championships this victory comes as a great relief, a veritable coup. Thank God we finally did it. We already showed good performances in the training runs and we knew that the sled’s set up was finely tuned. Even though we might now be tagged the big favorites for the Olympic Games next year it will certainly be a totally different race. We want to be in the same top shape in Sochi as today.”
Toni Eggert (GER / 2012 World silver medalist, 2013 European Champion)
“We confirmed our status as the No. 2 in the world. We showed a great performance”
Andreas Linger (AUT / 2006 and 2010 Olympic Champion, World Champion in 2003, 2011 and 2012, European Champion in 2010)
“We showed two good runs and gave it our best effort. Congratulations to the German teams. After the course of the season we’re really very happy with the bronze medal.”
