Strong final spurt: Eggert/Benecken snatch crystal globe away from Sics brothers

St. Moritz (FIL) Toni Eggert and Sascha Benecken left no stone unturned at the final of the EBERSPÄCHER Luge World Cup in St. Moritz. The German doubles achieved the best time in both runs on the only natural ice track in the World Cup.

With their fifth victory of the season, the pair from Thuringia secured victory in the overall World Cup. It is the sixth big crystal globe for the eight-time World champions. They have now drawn level with Patric Leitner/Alexander Resch. Only the Italian duo Hansjörg Raffl/Norbert Huber are ahead of them with eight triumphs. As an encore, so to speak, Eggert/Benecken became European champions. Their fourth title.

The brothers Andris and Juris Sics, who had travelled to Switzerland in the lead, came fifth. After both runs, the Latvians were 0.317 seconds behind. The two brothers lost the duel already in the first run, when they only managed the eighth fastest run - 0.272 seconds slower than Eggert/Benecken. "We expected much colder conditions, so we had the wrong setup for the first run," said front man Andris Sics, "because the run was actually not bad, but we didn't have the speed."

24 points is the gap in the final standings between Eggert/Benecken and Sics/Sics. "In the end, the overall World Cup went very happily for us after a hard fight inside and outside the track," Benecken summed up. In this respect, the verdict that the disqualification from the World Cup in Winterberg was revoked and Eggert/Benecken got 16 points on their account did not have a lasting effect on the final result.

In the gripping duel for the overall World Cup between Eggert/Benecken and Sics/Sics it was almost lost that behind the Olympic winners Tobias Wendl and Tobias Arlt (Germany/0.113 sec. behind) the Latvians Martins Bots and Roberts Plume (0.249) had finished third. And thus were able to decide the U23 ranking for themselves. "Actually Sigulda is already our favourite track", said Bots, "but we also like St. Moritz very much. You can really do great sledding on that track." After all, the Latvian junior doubles team achieved their first and so far only World Cup victory in Engadin a year ago.