Sovereign on home soil: First “real” World Cup victory for Hannes Orlamünder and Paul Gubitz - Egle/Kipp win convincingly

Oberhof (FIL/14.12.2024) If you had watched Hannes Orlamünder and Paul Gubitz at the finish, you wouldn't have believed that they had just won the men's doubles race in the EBERSPAECHER Luge World Cup in Oberhof. The Germans analyzed the two runs very soberly. “Home track, home crowd, home victory – it couldn't have gone better,” said Orlamünder, who was in front. And it was a special victory. After their success in a sprint race on the same track last season, they were able to claim their first victory in a race with two heats. “We had a good start at the top with a personal best time,” analyzed 25-year-old Orlamünder, ”we had a few small corners here and there. But we knew that the sled was running, so we didn't have any concerns that it wouldn't be enough.” His teammate Gubitz, who is the same age, was a little more emotional: “It's great that we can celebrate our first real World Cup victory at home in front of our home crowd.”

The duo Orlamünder/Gubitz was the fastest combination in both runs. 41.655 seconds in the first run, 41.620 seconds in the second run. That makes 1:23.275 minutes. Their teammates Tobias Wendl and Tobias Arlt, who missed out on their 55th World Cup victory by just 0.116 seconds, were not jealous. “Hannes and Paul did a great job today and can now celebrate their first real World Cup victory. Congratulations,” said Arlt. And Wendl looked at his own performance: “Our form is improving. We're happy that we were able to show what we can do in the first run with a great start record.” This now stands at 7.252 seconds. The old record (7.852) was held by Toni Eggert and Sascha Benecken.

The two German doubles were followed by two pairings from Austria. Thomas Steu and Wolfgang Kindl were 0.208 seconds behind. “We skated a little cautiously, didn't want to risk too much, so we weren't any faster,” said Kindl, ‘but it's okay to skate cautiously and still make it onto the podium.’ And Steuermann Steu added with an eye to the future: ‘We'll come back to Oberhof again, then we can risk more.’ Yuri Gatt and Riccardo Schöpf followed 0.382 seconds behind. Toni Eggert and Florian Müller followed just five thousandths of a second behind. This meant that the Germans took the sole lead in the overall World Cup, ahead of Martins Bots and Roberts Plume. The Latvians finished seventh in the race, 0.537 seconds behind the Germans. The Italian pair Ivan Nagler/Fabian Malleier (0.472) were able to place themselves in between.

In the women's race, Selina Egle and Lara Kipp were the measure of all things. The two Austrians also achieved the fastest time in both runs, and in run one they even set an outstanding track record of 42.382 seconds. The old record was held by Jessica Degenhardt and Cheyenne Rosenthal (42.852). The German duo came in second, 0.261 seconds behind. “Selina and Lara were unbeatable today,” said Degenhardt appreciatively, who had been struggling with back problems all week. Selina Egle also expressed her satisfaction during the winner's interviews: “It's a wonderful feeling, everything went perfectly.”

The two Americans Chevonne Forgan and Sophia Kirkby were also satisfied with their performance, despite being 0.732 seconds behind in third place. “We had two great runs today and are really happy to be back on the podium,” said coxswain Forgan. Andrea Vötter/Marion Oberhofer (Italy/0.761) and the Latvians Marta Robezniece and Kitija Bogdanova (1.044) followed in second and third place.

The overall World Cup winner from last season wanted to get one message across: “The weather is, as is unfortunately often the case in Oberhof, not ideal, but the ice was perfectly prepared. A big thank you to the track workers.”