The fifth strike of Julia Taubitz  

Koenigssee (FIL): It is getting tighter and tighter at the top of the women's EBERSPÄCHER World Cup 2020/21. The winner of the race in Koenigssee is Julia Taubitz (GER). After the fifth victory of the season, the athlete from Oberwiesenthal is only four points behind leader Natalie Geisenberger (GER) in the overall World Cup ranking.

The four-time Olympic champion finished second again on her home track, as she has done in all races this season. "The series is holding", said the athlete from Miesbach in Bavaria, "if someone had told me that in the summer, I would have agreed with it for 100%. Of course, it's a bit annoying now that it's not even enough for first place." Looking at the results list, the 32-year-old: "Today I have to say: the gap was too big." 0.310 seconds was the gap.

"I couldn't have imagined a better start to the new year," said Taubitz, who let out a liberating "Yeah" after crossing the finish line. "It was two nice runs with only a few small mistakes. Overall I'm happy, it was a lot of fun to race down."
 
The third athlete on the podium was Madeleine Egle (AUT). After three fourth places, the Austrian finally made it. "I'm really happy," cheered the 22-year-old from Rinn, "three times it was close, not this time. Königssee was the track where I did my first big race, now I made it to the podium for the first time. Now I'm looking forward to the World Championships."

Four weeks before the title competitions on the world's first artificial track, all female lugers already had this highlight in their sights. "The World Championships is a new day, everything is drawn anew," said Taubitz, "to that extent I'm not resting. But it gives a good self-confidence." Geisenberger called her race a good dress rehearsal given her consistency.

With the World Championships in their sights, the U.S. women's lugers also competed for the first time at Koenigssee. However, they still had to find their bearings after the long World Cup break. Emily Sweeney was the best in tenth place with a gap of 1.256 seconds.   

The detailed results of the 5th EBERSPÄCHER Luge World Cup 2020/21 at Koenigssee are available using the following link: https://www.fil-luge.org/de/ergebnisse/eberspaecher-weltcup-4

World Cup results are online here: https://www.fil-luge.org/de/gesamtstaende?event_season_id=28