Oberhof (pps) The women’s single event will be dominated by the thrilling duel between World champion Tatjana Huefner, European champion Natalie Geisenberger and “local hero” Silke Kraushaar-Pielach, who will compete in her last World Championships in front of a home crowd.

“I’ve gotten rid of these niggling aches, my start is good, I’m in shape and the material is well tuned-up. The only thing I need are another 15 kilos”, explained the rather petite 37-year-old with a side blow at her German competitors who all weigh at least ten kilos more, stepping on the scales.

Bearing the course of the present season in mind, only three women are to be considered top favourites to grab the World Championship title: Huefner, having achieved four victories this season, Geisenberger with the recommendation of an European Championship title and Kraushaar-Pielach who has not achieved World Cup results beyond third place this season. Huefner and Geisenberger explained their World Championships ambitions with one sentence. A sentence that can be traced back to Jens Mueller, 1988 Olympic and 2000 World champion: “I’m not going to Oberhof to fill-up the bus seats”, Huefner and Geisenberger announced in unison.

Among the odd ones out are Anke Wischnewski of Germany, Veronika Halder of Austria, who shed some tears of joy winning the European bronze medal in Cesana-Pariol, her compatriot Nina Reithmayer, Switzerland’s Martina Kocher, who finished in fifth position at the Worlds last year, and last but not least Natalja Yakushenko of the Ukraine.

Schedule for Friday, January 25
09:00 hrs training – seeded athletes
10:00 hrs heat (starting order to be determined)
14:00 hrs women’s single
18:00 hrs “Warm Up“ at the spa gardens
19:30 hrs victory ceremony – women’s single