Vötter/Oberhofer and Wendl/Arlt win European Championships in Sigulda

Sigulda (FIL/14 Jan 2023) It was supposed to be another Latvian doubles festival, but the international competitors didn't play along. Andrea Vötter and Marion Oberhofer (ITA) and Tobias Wendl and Tobias Arlt (GER) won the 5th EBERSPÄCHER Luge World Cup of the season and with it the European Championship titles. They respectively relegated their Latvian competitors Upite/Ozolina and Bots/Plume to the places. Eight women's and 18 men's doubles had started on the Sigulda Luge Track this Saturday.

With an outside temperature of plus four degrees and the onset of rain, the weather and ice conditions were completely different from the previous week. The overall World Cup leaders Andrea Vötter and Marion Oberhofer coped best with the changed conditions in the race and set best times in both runs. With an overall time of 1.26.281 they won clearly ahead of Latvia's Anda Upite and Sanija Ozolina (+0.501 sec.) and the reigning World Champions Jessica Degenhardt and Cheyenne Rosenthal (GER, +0.558 sec.). Last week, Austria's Selina Egle and Lara Kipp (+0.560 sec.) still fell and finished fourth. The US Americans Chevonne Forgan and Sophia Kirkby (+0.618 sec.) missed the podium this time with fifth place.

In the European Championships, held for the first time in women's doubles, Italy's Vötter/Oberhofer won the gold medal, silver went to Latvian duo Upite/Ozolina (LAT) and bronze to Degenhardt/Rosenthal from Germany. Anda Upite and Sanija Ozolina were also happy about U23 European Championship gold.

Exciting men's doubles race

Once again, the men's doubles delivered an exciting race. The top 3 were only 35 thousandths apart after run one. The Olympic Champions Wendl/Arlt with their best run time from third place were able to win with a total time of 1.24.022 ahead of Latvia's Bots/Plume (+0,0,062 sec.) and Sevics-Mikelsevics/Krasts (+0,089 sec.). ) Last week still crashed the Austrians Gatt/Schöpf ended up on rank four, closely followed by the World Cup leaders Eggert/Benecken, who fought their way up to rank five after rank eight in the first run. Italy's Rieder/Rastner had set a new start record of 1.502 seconds in the first run and finished the race in tenth place. For Wendl/Arlt it was the 48th World Cup victory of their career. They also took the lead in the overall World Cup.

In the simultaneously held European Championship ranking Wendl/Arlt won their fourth title in total. With four gold, six silver and one bronze medal, they now lead the European Championship ranking. After two European bronze medals, Bots/Plume won the silver medal for the first time. Their young teammates, the Junior World Champions of 2022 Mikelsevics/Krasts were happy about European Championship bronze.

The farewell of the Sics brothers was a particularly emotional moment. Cheered on by family and friends, they went down the ice channel together for the last time as forerunners. They won the silver medal in the doubles' event at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver and the bronze medal and bronze medal with the team relay in Sochi in 2014. Both will remain in the sport of luge. While Andris Sics has been working for the FIL as Technical Director since this season, his older brother Juris is a coach with the Italian federation.

Quotes:

Andrea Vötter (ITA): “The second week went much better, but the conditions were also slower. We could show two great runs today and we are really happy about the European Championship title. The race today was, I think, the best we have shown so far. Our double experiment is really going really well.”

Anda Upite (LAT): “For us, second place is a very good result, even though we won last week. You have to remember that it's only our third World Cup. The track here is really difficult, we made small mistakes and we are really very happy with the result.”

Tobias Arlt (GER): “It is a dream to race here in front of this enthusiastic crowd. Finally, there are spectators on site again. We are incredibly happy to race here in Sigulda and are also doing well. To take the overall World Cup lead here and win the fourth European Championship title is just great.”

Roberts Plume: “For us it is a medal triple at the European Championships after two bronze and now silver. We are happy that we are now so consistently successful. Nevertheless, we are sad that we could not win the title, because we know that we have it in us. The atmosphere here at the track is simply great. This feeling here at home is just special.”

The results of the 5th Doubles World Cup of the 2022/23 season are available at the following link: https://www.fil-luge.org/de/ergebnisse/eberspaecher-weltcup-23