Ties in the overall standings of the World Cup in women's doubles /
Steu and Kindl in the lead

Sigulda (FIL/24. Feb. 2024) Of course Roberts Plume was looking forward to his home race in Sigulda as part of the EBERSPAECHER Luge World Cup. Although he admits: "A home race is harder in the run-up because you think about it more". But after his victory in 1:23,308 minutes the man in front of him, Martins Bots, added: "But then the support of the spectators helps". This was also the explanation given by Tobias Wendl, who finished second together with his team-mate Tobias Arlt, just 0.018 seconds behind the winners. "Of course, I'm annoyed about the hundredth of a second on Pots/Blume," said Wendl and added: "The Latvian spectators made up for this hundredth of a second, they cheered their compatriots on.”

Latvian head coach Zintis Saicans, however, analyzed with a trained eye: "The Tobis made a mistake in curve 16, which costed them the hundredth". However, Tobias Arlt was already looking ahead to the overall World Cup: "It is not that close, Steu/Kindl have been much more consistent than us this season. We had a few outliers, especially in Altenberg. But we'll give our best in the sprint and the final and see if we can make up some points.”

Thomas Steu and Wolfgang Kindl were third (0.274) behind the two Germans, but the two Austrians did not lose too many points as a result. With two races to go Steu/Kindl have 841 points, Wendl/Arlt 715, especially as Steu is getting to know the track in Sigulda better and better. "I couldn't imagine that after the last years my best result here was a fifth place and that was a long time ago. It was a spirited performance and a hard-fought third place," said the experienced athlete.

After the fifth victory of the season by Jessica Degenhardt and Cheyenne Rosenthal (Germany/ 1:25,743) the overall ranking of the women's doubles World Cup is tied at 0,085 ahead of Italy's Andrea Vötter and Marion Oberhofer. Both doubles have 795 points. Rosenthal had the feeling that the runs in the lower part were clean, but helmswoman Degenhardt said: "We didn't really know where we stood."

Dajana Eiberger and Saskia Schirmer were third, 0.108 seconds behind. "We achieved the minimum goal," admitted Eitberger. The German duo is also third in the overall standings with 731 points. "We had the two best runs of the whole week," said Eitberger. World Champions Selina Egle and Lara Kipp (Austria/0.301) followed in fourth place. They are also fourth in the overall World Cup standings with 704 points.