With speed into the new season: The red-white-red team dominates in the sprint as well

Innsbruck (FIL/04.12.2022) Nico Gleirscher was the outstanding luger at the World Cup opener in Innsbruck. The Tyrolean also won the Sprint World Cup in 32,599 seconds on his home track on 04 December 2022 after the EBERSPÄCHER World Cup. "I really like the sprint. After all the wins of our team, I just had to bring that one home as well. I don't even know what to say. It was just an awesome day today," said the 25-year-old with satisfaction. 

His teammate Wolfgang Kindl (+0,012 sec.) raced to the second place as in Beijing 2022 and Dominik Fischnaller from South Tyrol also to the third place (+0,034). Fischnaller was satisfied, said to his eternal opponent: "My God Wolfi, once I would have liked to have left you behind in Igls. But maybe it will work out next time".

Olympic fourth-placed Felix Loch of Germany did not compete after his fall in the men's singles race and pain in his thigh. A big surprise in the Sprint World Cup was Jozef Ninis. After finishing eleventh in the individual, the Slovakian even lapped in sixth place in the sprint (+0.161) and thus secured valuable World Cup points.

Local hero Madeleine Egle did not let herself be deprived of the victory in the Sprint World Cup either and won like the day before ahead of Emily Sweeney (USA, +0.019 sec.) and Julia Taubitz (GER, +0.029 sec.). "To win four races here in Igls together with my sister is insane. If someone had told us that before, we wouldn't have believed it," the winner said happily. "I really struggled in the pre-season preparation and didn't think I had made such a jump, but it seems to be the case. Tomorrow we have to get up at four in the morning, so I don't think it matters if we party through today."
Emily Sweeney was also justified in celebrating. She had just completed her fourth race in two days, as did Andrea Vötter (ITA) and U.S. teammate Summer Britcher, who each competed in both World Cup singles and women's doubles. Whether and how long they will master this mammoth program will become clear in the course of the season. 

After the triple triumph of the previous day, Yannik Müller and Armin Frauscher raced to the next Austrian victory in the first Sprint World Cup in Igls. Winner Yannik Müller beamed over both ears: "Top. This is a great World Cup weekend here in Igls. After the third place yesterday, we snatched the victory in the sprint today. An incredible feeling and 100 World Cup points, that's top!" Second, 0.015 seconds behind, were the young Latvians Martins Bots and Roberts Plume ahead of Hannes Orlamünder and Paul Gubitz of Germany (+0.036 sec.), who were delighted with their first World Cup podium. "The start doesn't matter so much in the sprint and we were able to do three plumes instead of four because the time barrier is not decisive. This allowed us to go faster at the top and we hit the track well again today", 23-year-old Hannes Orlamünder was happy. 

Another premiere was celebrated by the women's doubles with their first Sprint World Cup. The youngest Olympic discipline of the FIL was included as a new discipline by the IOC (International Olympic Committee) for the 2026 Winter Games in Milan-Cortina. The first Sprint World Cup in the 65-year history of the FIL was won by Selina Egle and Lara Kipp. The young Austrians were 0.082 seconds faster on their home track than Andrea Vötter and Marion Oberhofer from South Tyrol. Anda Upite and Sanija Ozolina from Latvia finished third, 0.113 seconds behind. "I don't think it will continue like this with our winning streak," Selina Egle fears. "Now we're going overseas, but I don't know the track yet. We'll just make the best of it and try to get two good runners down again."

The results of the 1st Sprint World Cup of the 2022/2023 season are available at the following link: https://www.fil-luge.org/de/ergebnisse/sprint-weltcup-2