At the FIL Luge World Cup final on Natural Track in Umhausen (AUT) the top four of the World Cup classification fought a tough battle on Saturday evening. In the end, defending champion Thomas Kammerlander (AUT) conquered the race-victory and won the crystal globe.
(from left) Thomas Kammerlander celebrating with Michael Scheikl
After the first run on Friday the start of the final run was extremely exciting: Michael Scheikl (AUT) was only 0.05 seconds ahead of his team-mate Thomas Kammerlander and 0.23 seconds ahead of Patrick Pigneter (ITA). World Champion Alex Gruber (ITA) in fourth position was 0.52 seconds behind. In the decisive second run on Saturday evening Gruber initially fixed the new benchmark, but Pigneter countered and clearly took the lead. Local hero Kammerlander showed an excellent run on his home track and took the lead in 2:26.46 minutes, his team-mate Michael Scheikl (+0.17) did not come close to Kammerlander's time. Pigneter in third place was 0.50 seconds behind.
With his third win of the season, Thomas Kammerlander won the overall World Cup for the fourth time in a row with 600 points, his team-mate Michael Scheikl (555 points) finished in second place, third place for Patrick Pigneter (500) ahead of Gruber (510).
(from left) Michael Scheikl and Thomas Kammerlander celebrating the one-two
Thomas Kammerlander: “I went all in and changed the luge before the second run because the track was completely different today. The hard ice conditions are good form e and therefor I knew before the run that I would win. Simply amazing ”.
Michael Scheikl: “It was my best season in the World Cup so far. Second place in the overall ranking is awesome. I couldn’t do better today - congratulations to Thomas Kammerlander ”.
Patrick Pigneter: “The season was good, for the 15th time I'm in the top three in the overall ranking. However, i didn‘t win. I wanted to win the overall World Cup today and am therefore disappointed. Now it's just a matter of continuing to work ”.
In the women's single Evelin Lanthaler (ITA) already one stage before the final was the winner of the overall World Cup. For the World Champion it is the third ball in a row with 685 points, the fourth in total. With her sixth win of the season Lanthaler finished the World Cup in 2.29.15 minutes on the "Grantau"-track, ahead of her team-mate Greta Pinggera (+1.22) and the Russian Ekaterina Lavrenteva (+1.26), who had a strong finish and pushed local hero Tina Unterberger (AUT / + 1.81) off the podium. Pinggera prevailed with 555 points in the battle for second place in the overall World Cup against Unterberger (525).
(from left) Podium women's single with Pinggera, Lanthaler and Lavrenteva
“The conditions today were different from yesterday, therefor it was not easy. Nevertheless, I am very satisfied with the performance and the season. Now I'm looking forward to the European Championships, ”Lanthaler said.
11th crystal ball for Pigneter/Clara
In the doubles Patrick Pigneter/Florian Clara (ITA) turned the classification upside with an excellent performance in the second rund. With 1:16.72 minutes the Italians set the absolutely fastest time of the weekend and with a total time of 2:34.58 minutes the kicked the half-time leaders Pavel Porshnev/Ivan Lazarev (RUS/+0.97) from the top of the podium. Third place for Patrick Lambacher/Matthias Lambacher (ITA/+ 1.75 seconds).
(from left) Podium doubles: Lazarev/Porshnev, Clara/Pigneter and Lambacher/Lambacher
With a total of 670 points Pignter/Clara won their 11th crystal globe, celebrating their fifth win of the season. For the first time the Italians won the World Cup classification in the 2007/2008 season. Second place for Porshnev/Lazarev (570 points), ahead of Lambacher/Lambacher with 510 points.
Patrick Pigneter: “The feeling during the second run was not that good. We wanted to win today and it went well ”. His partner Florian Clara added: "We have reached our season goal, this is the result of our consistency".
The Russians Porshnev/Lazarev were very disappointed after the second round: “The ice on the track was faster today than yesterday, we were a bit surprised by the speed and so we crashed in the technically difficult S-combination. Nevertheless, we have to look ahead and want to be back on top in a week at the European Championships in Moscow ”.
Austria (Tina Unterberger/Thomas Kammerlander) won the team-competition in 2:30.92 minutes, 0.27 seconds ahead of Italy (Evelin Lanthaler/Patrick Pigneter), Russia (Ekaterina Lavrenteva/Aleksander Egorov) finished third just 0.69 seconds behind. For Austria it was the second win in the third team competition of the season.
The 2019/2020 Season of the FIL Luge World Cup on Natural Track ended in Umhausen with an atmospheric award ceremony. Next stop are the 28th FIL Luge European Championships on Natural Track in Moscow in one week.
