Sigulda (pps) Andreas and Wolfgang Linger of Austria are on the verge of winning the only title that is still missing in their collection. After their third victory in the Viessmann Luge World Cup in Sigulda, the three-time World and two-time Olympic Champions as well as 2010 European Champions might claim their first overall World Cup victory. After eight of nine events in the series and prior to the season’s final in Paramonovo (Russia) next weekend (February 25-26, 2012), the team of brothers have a leading margin of 45 points on defending champions Tobias Arlt-Tobias Wendl of Germany. Being 0.3969 seconds behind Linger-Linger, the 2008 World silver medalists had to settle for a third place on the artificially-refrigerated track in the Baltic state.
Linger-Linger won the event with a winning margin of 0.239 seconds ahead of Italy’s Christian Oberstolz-Patrick Gruber. The World silver medalists Toni Eggert-Sascha Benecken of Germany (0.482 seconds behind) finished in fourth position behind Wendl-Arlt. Latvia’s Oskars Gudramovics-Peteris Kalnis claimed the fifth place.
Linger-Linger have the top spot in the overall World Cup rankings with 680 points to their credit ahead of Wendl-Arlt (635) and Eggert-Benecken (560).
Quotes
Andreas Linger
(AUT / 2006 and 2010 Olympic Champion; 2003, 2011 and 2012 World Champion; 2010 European Champion)
“The overall World Cup victory is the only title that is still missing in our collection. And now that we’re this close we absolutely want to claim it. In Sigulda it’s our ‘whole package’ that is working out so well. And it’s obvious that Austrian lugers are regularly having practice runs on this track in the autumn.”
Tobias Wendl
(GER / 2008 World silver medalist; defending champion in the overall Viessmann Luge World Cup)
“We wanted to diminish the gap to Linger-Linger – and it worked out. Last year we were seven tenths of a seconds behind the two, this time round is was just three tenths of a second. Being 45 points behind Linger-Linger in the overall rankings does not mean that we have already dismissed the overall World Cup. The track in Paramonovo is demanding and it’s not easy to manage two good runs.”
