Sigulda (pps) Even though the course is set, the final of the Viessmann Luge World Cup to be carried out in Sigulda, Latvia, next weekend (February 17-18, 2007) still promises a lot of excitement. Thanks to their victories in Winterberg last weekend, it seems to be a mere formality that Armin Zoeggeler (Italy) and Patric Leitner-Alexander Resch (Germany) will take the overall World Cup trophy in the men’s singles and doubles’ event respectively. Even though Silke Kraushaar-Pielach of Germany has already claimed the women’s overall World Cup it remains to be seen if Germany’s winning streak of 72 successive victories will finally snap in Sigulda.

One of the reasons: Silke Kraushaar-Pielach’s superiority in the women’s singles has suffered quite a bit. With six singles victories in the current World Cup under her belt she surprisingly fluffed two starts in a row and slid to a disappointing third place at the Worlds in Sigulda and a fourth place in Winterberg. And even though World champion Tatjana Huefner confirmed her good performance with a victory at the Viessmann Luge World Cup event in Winterberg, she will have to face the difficult track in Sigulda for the first time in her career, just like World Championship fourth-placed Natalie Geisenberger. And finally the fourth athlete of the German quartet, Anke Wischnewski, has so far achieved only one victory in the current Viessmann Luge World Cup.

„It will be a close race“ predicts Germany’s head coach Thomas Schwab. Especially since Ukraine’s Natalia Yakushenko, who has given proof of her good shape in Winterberg when she posted a third place finish, senses her opportunity: “Of course I want to win the event in Sigulda.” On November 19, 2004 the 34-year old sports instructor had gone down in history when she ended Germany’s winning streak after 21 consecutive victories at the Challenge Cup in Sigulda.

Should Yakushenko achieve this feat in next Saturday’s World Cup (February 17, 2007), the German winning streak of now 72 successive victories (including Tatjana Huefner’s gold medal in Winterberg last weekend) that began on December 5, 1997 in Igls with the victory of Barbara Niedernhuber might come to an end after exactly 3,361 days.

Since Armin Zoeggeler of Italy has won his 35 th World Cup singles race in Winterberg, the two-time Olympic champion needs no more than a 12 th place at the Viessmann Luge World Cup final in Sigulda to achieve his sixth overall season title after 1997-98, 1999- 2000, 2000-01, 2003-04 and 2005-06. Austria’s Markus Prock, however, remains the record winner in the men’s event with ten overall victories.

Germany’s four-time World champions Patric-Leitner-Alexander Resch are getting closer to record winners Hans-Joerg Raffl-Norbert Huber (Italy/eight overall victories). The 2002 Olympic champions just need a tenth place to claim their fifth overall World Cup title after 1999-2000, 2001-02, 2003-04 and 2005-06. Thanks to their success in Winterberg, the two now boast 27 individual series victories and have thus drawn level with the previous record winners Stefan Krausse-Jan Behrendt of Germany.