Lillehammer (pps)Russia’s Albert Demtschenko, Tatjana Hüfner from Germany and the Austrian doubles Andreas Linger/Wolfgang Linger are the winners of the Tiscover Challenge Cup in Lillehammer, Norway.
For the tenth anniversary, the Tiscover Challenge Cup returned to its origins: launched in Lillehammer on November 12th 1999, the second race of the elimination event in the year 2009 again took place at the Olympic luge track of 1994.
At the men’s competition, Italy’s two times Olympic Champion Armin Zöggeler (50,169 seconds) couldn’t repeat his victory from ten years ago and finished second behind Albert Demtschenko (50,120 seconds). Rank three went to World Champion Felix Loch (GER, 50,259).
The women’s race won two times World Champion Tatjana Hüfner from Germany (48,627 seconds) followed by the reigning World Champion Erin Hamlin (USA, 48,827) and Natalia Yakushenko from Ukraine (48,888).
Winners of the doubles race to Tiscover Challenge Cup in Lillehammer are Andreas Linger/Wolfgang Linger (AUT, 48,375). The World Champions of 2003 in the final run banned Germany’s Olympic Champions of 2002 Patric Leitner/Alexander Resch (48,448) to rank two. Their teammates Andre Florschütz/Torsten Wustlich (GER, 48,532) finished third.
In the overall standings of Tiscover Challenge Cup, Demtschenko and Zöggeler, both with 170 points, stay ahead, followed by Germany’s David Möller (155). Tatjana Hüfner with her second victory in second race to Tiscover Challenge Cup is in front followed by her teammate Natalie Geisenberger and Erin Hamlin from USA (both 145). At the doubles, Leitner/Resch before the third and last Tiscover Challenge Cup (January 29th, 2010 in Cesana, Italy) are on first rank (185 points), followed by Linger/Linger (AUT, 155) and Italy’s Oberstolz/Gruber (140).
