Sigulda (pps) Italy's relay team claimed its second season victory in the Viessmann Team Relay World Cup presented by INTERSPORT. At the season's relay final in Sigulda the quartet with Sandra Gasparini, Armin Zoeggeler and Christian Oberstolz-Patrick Gruber took the victory ahead of team Austria with Nina Reithmayer, Manuel Pfister and Andreas Linger-Wolfgang Linger. It was the first podium finish for the Austrian relay team in the 2011-2012 winter. The quartet of Germany with Natalie Geisenberger, Felix Loch and Tobias Wendl-Tobias Arlt, who already won the overall World Cup, had to settle for third place. Fourth place went to the U.S. team ahead of team Canada. In the overall World Cup rankings, team Germany holds the top spot with 540 points to their credit, followed by Canada (392) and Russia (385), who finished sixth in Sigulda. The host of the 2014 Olympic Winter Games in Sochi had entered a "B" squad for the World Cup in Sigulda so as to give their top athletes, headed by World silver medalists Tatiana Ivanova and Albert Demchenko, the best possible preparation for the Viessmann Luge World Cup final next weekend in front of a home crowd in Paramonovo. Simultaneously, the European Championships of the International Luge Federation (FIL) will be carried out in Russia.