Winterberg (pps) The 2010 Olympic Winter Games in Vancouver, Canada (February 12-28) are already casting a shadow over the 6th Viesmann Luge World Cup event in Winterberg, Germany, since the results there will affect the list of seeded lugers for the Olympic luge events at the "Whistler Sliding Center". Apart from the results in Winterberg this list of seeded athletes will also reflect those of the Viessmann Luge World Cup in Oberhof (January 16-17, 2010) and Cesana/Italy (January 23-24, 2010). A better ranking on this list, the better the chances for a favourable starting place at the Olympic Winter Games.
The current leaders in the Viessmann Luge World Cup do not have to worry about a good starting place. Germany's Tatjana Huefner, with her 20th career victory, is clearly heading for her third overall World Cup victory. Despite his second place behind Russia's Albert Demchenko at the World Cup event in Koenigssee, Italy's Armin Zoeggeler defended his top position, boasting a total of 455 points with a lead of 76 points ahead of the 2006 Olympic silver medallist. In the doubles' events Germany's André Florschuetz-Torsten Wustlich (410 points) are - in their last season together - a model of consistency. However, their lead on Austria's Andreas Linger-Wolfgang Linger and Germany's Patrick Leitner-Alexander Resch, both tied on second place with 360 points each, amounts to just 50 points.
In the shadow cast by the top lugers in the men's event, Germany's Andi Langenhan and Austria's Daniel Pfister met the qualifying criteria - with their fourth (Langenhan) and sixth (Pfister) place, they both punched the ticket to the Olympic Games. Maciej Kurowski of Poland, on the other hand, failed to qualify by a hair's breadth when he finished on 18th place instead of among the top 16. In the women's singles, Switzerland's Martina Kocher met "half" of the qualifying criteria when she took a ninth place.
