Winterberg. Patric Leitner/Alexander Resch from Germany won the Doubles-Competition at Luge European Championships 2006 in Winterberg (Germany). The Olympic Champions won in a total time of one minute 29,824 seconds followed by their teammates Sebastian Schmidt/Andre Forker (one minute 29,886 seconds).
Third place went to Italy`s Christian Oberstolz/Patrick Gruber in a total time of one minute 29,924 seconds.
The current World Champions Andre Florschütz/Torsten Wustlich from Germany, leading after first run, had a bad second run and with a total time of one minute 30,034 seconds finished seventh.


Quotes:

Patric Leitner (GER, three times World Champion):
“In training we had been faster, but the conditions were still regular. We knew, it would not be our ice today and we have to fight. It was an exciting race.”

Sebastian Schmidt (GER, Vice World Junior Champion 1998):
“We’re absolutely satisfied. We’d never thought that. It’s was a close decision with this weather, but we hit both runs very well.”

Patrick Gruber (ITA, Vice European Champion 2004):
“A third place is always good. I don’t know if we had better chances with different weather. I don’t see the European Championship as a practice for the Olympic Games – it is a totally different track in Torino.”