Wendl/Arlt and Degenhardt/Rosenthal lay foundation for 53rd World Cup victory at the start

Whistler (FIL/15 Dec 2023) It wasn't enough for the newly formed team of Thomas Steu and Wolfgang Kindl to celebrate their first victory in the EBERSPAECHER Luge World Cup, but the yellow bib of the World Cup leaders still belongs to the two Austrians. Just like a week ago in Lake Placid, Steu from Vorarlberg and Kindl from Tyrol finished second. Olympic Champions Tobias Wendl and Tobias Arlt did better. The Germans celebrated their 53rd World Cup victory in 1:17,300 minutes. Steu/Kindl were 0.078 seconds behind. Hannes Orlamünder and Paul Gubitz made it to the podium for the first time. The two Germans were 0.105 seconds slower than Wendl/Arlt. The Thuringians had finished once on the third place at the Sprint World Cup in Innsbruck.

The new constellation with Steu/Kindl gives the six-time Olympic Champions Wendl/Arlt a real kick again. "Racing is so much fun again", Wendl admitted. And that spurs on the veterans. "If we were to take the top of one run and the bottom of the other, we'd be very happy. But that's okay too," he added. And Arlt said: "This win gives us confidence."

After competing in both disciplines singles and doubles on the same day, Kindl is satisfied. "We will save our first joint World Cup victory for one of the next World Cup races", the 25-year-old announced. And front man Steu analyzed exactly what the problem was: "You can't win with such a start, we were too far away from Wendl/Arlt. The gap in Whistler was five and seven hundredths of a second respectively.

Jessica Degenhardt and Cheyenne Rosenthal are still far away from 53 World Cup victories like their German teammates Wendl/Arlt. In 1:18.371 minutes they finished on the top step of the podium for the seventh time, 0.080 seconds behind came in Dajana Eitberger and Saskia Schirmer (Germany). "The victory came as a bit of a surprise after this week," said a delighted Rosenthal, "we still had a big gap in training, but we managed it well in the race. Better than last year, when they were also in the lead after the first run, but then lost it. "The basis of our success today was definitely the fast start," was Degenhardt's analysis. With 3.368 seconds they also hold the start record since last year. They came within four thousandths of a second of this record.

Andrea Vötter and Marion Oberhofer were also satisfied with third place. They lost the 0.015 seconds the Italians needed for second place in the second run. "It's a pity that we lost a place in the second run, but that's the sport of luge", said Vötter, "but Dajana and Saskia showed a great second run".

The second World Cup race also featured the America-Pacific Championships. On their home track, Canada's Devin Wardrope and Cole Zajanski took the men's title in 1:18.046 ahead of Lake Placid winners Zachary Di Gregorio/Sean Hollander (USA/0.043 seconds back). Third place went to their teammates Marcus Mueller/Ansel Haugsjaa (0.432). Chevonne Forgan/Sophia Kirkby won the women's race. The two US-Americans finished in 1:18.514 minutes. Their compatriots Maya Chan and Reannyn Weiler finished second (0.254) ahead of Canada's Embyr-Lee Susko/Beattie Podulsky (0.406).