Calgary (pps) The leaders in the Viessmann Luge World Cup could not be more famous. The Germans, Olympic and World champion Sylke Otto, and the most successful luger of all times, Georg Hackl, as well as the US doubles, Mark Grimmette and Brian Martin, the most successful lugers in US history, are the overall leaders before the second event on Friday and Saturday in Calgary.

Since her victory in the World Cup opener in Park City Sylke Otto now has 22 World Cup wins on her record. With now 28 victories Georg Hackl is closing the gap to the retired record winner Markus Prock (32) of Austria. And the 2002 Olympic silver medallists Grimmette-Martin can boast to be the "most successful lugers in US history” thanks to their seventh World Cup win in Park City and 32 medals in international races.

While Sylke Otto and the two US boys think "only from race to race”, the German men´s 2002 Olympic silver medallist knows very well that he had a lucky draw in the snow-affected race at Park City. "Otherwise I would not have had a chance”, Hackl said who managed to win the race by finishing fourth and eighth in the two heats.

It is undisputed, however, that the world´s top has become even closer in the men´s and doubles´ events. New names surprised even the experts: Nobody had Austria´s Markus Kleinheinz and Russia´s Albert Demchenko, second and third respectively in the men´s event, on their list. The same holds true for Austria´s Sonja Manzenreiter, fourth in the women´s event, her compatriots Andreas and Wolfgang Linger, bronze medallists, and the Canadians Grand Albrecht and Mike Moffat, who came fourth in the doubles.

The track records at Calgary

Calgary (pps) The track records on the 1988 Olympic track in Calgary are a German domain. All records date from last year´s Viessmann Luge World Cup when Calgary staged World Cup events for the eighth time.

The track records:

Women: Sylke Otto (Germany) with 44.160 seconds
Men: Georg Hackl (Germany) with 44.677 seconds
Doubles: Leitner-Resch (Germany) with 44.186 seconds

Redaktion:
cosmos-pps Kommunikations GmbH
Wolfgang Harder
Windscheidstr. 6
D 10627 Berlin
Tel.: (+49) 173 – 60 733 52
Email: HardyWolfgang@aol.com