Sigulda (pps) Germany’s former World champion Sonja Wiedemann will return to the Viessmann Luge World Cup after a break of three years. 21 races after her victory at Lake Placid in 2001, the now 27-year-old will celebrate her comeback next weekend at Sigulda, Latvia, where Wiedemann will be the fourth German competitor besides Sylke Otto, Silke Kraushaar and Barbara Niedernhuber.
At Sigulda, Sonja Wiedemann will have a remote competition against Anke Wischnewski, the surprise winner of Altenberg. Whoever of these two achieves the better result in the two World Cup events at Altenberg and Sigulda, may compete in the events at Lake Placid, USA, and Calgary, Canada. “It will be very, very tough“, Sonja Wiedemann said after her direct competitor’s first World Cup victory. “But the Sigulda track suits me. Perhaps I can achieve a surprise as well.”

Sonja Wiedemann who had retired from her career after a back injury, but then tried again and surprisingly closed the gap to the German World Cup team this season, won the 1999 World Championship title at Koenigssee, Germany, and World bronze at St. Moritz, Switzerland, in 2000. She also has two World Cup wins on her record, at Innsbruck- Igls, Austria, in January 2001 and Lake Placid, USA, in November 2001, where Wiedemann was the only German competitor because the Olympic team practised instead at La Plagne, France. By her victory she continued the German winning series in the women’s event which began in November 1997 and is still unbroken.