Winterberg (pps) While World champion Felix Loch had to postpone again his comeback after a should injury, the situation in the men’s singles is still the same prior to the next Viessmann Luge World Cup event in Winterberg on December 13-14, 2008. After two stops in Igls, Austria, and Sigulda, Latvia, two-time Olympic champion Armin Zoeggeler of Italy and two-time World champion David Moeller of Germany both top the overall standings.
Felix Loch, however, is forced to postpone his seasons’ debut. Due to his shoulder injury, the youngest World luge champion of all times is prevented from competing in Winterberg. “Felix needs another two weeks of physiotherapy and the best place for that is in Berchtesgaden”, Norbert Loch, national coach and Felix’ father, explained the result of a physical recovery test on Monday. 19-year old Felix Loch suffered an injury on the shoulder joint (two torn ligaments) following a crash on the future Olympic track in Whistler, Canada.
„It doesn’t happen every day – especially on a track such as in Sigulda – that I’m able to get the ‘yellow jersey’ of the overall leader. Even though I’m in a tie for first place together with Armin”, Moeller said in Latvia. Last season, both Moeller and Zoeggeler have given each other one hard-fought duel after the other. Eventually, the 34-year old athlete from South Tyrol captured the overall World Cup crown whereas Moeller has not yet achieved an overall victory.
Igls winner Andi Langenhan of Germany finished on 13th position in Sigulda. Albert Demchenko of Russia, who crashed in Igls, now celebrated a victory in Sigulda – both have thus missed their chance to have a say in the men’s singles. “This was the best answer”, commented Demchenko. After his crash in Austria, however, the Russian athlete has hardly a chance to win the overall World Cup for a second time after 2006. This is why the men’s singles will surely see again an exciting battle between defending champion Zoeggeler and his rival Moeller.
In the women’s singles, Germany’s 25-year-old Tatjana Huefner celebrated her ninth consecutive victory and there seems to be no doubt about the eventual overall Viessmann Luge World Cup winner. However, the two-time World champion only takes one race at a time and does not really answer questions as to her goals for the season. Huefner won the race in Sigulda with an advantage of two hundreds of a second ahead of Natalia Yakushenko Ukraine) and thus also secured the winning streak of Germany’s women with now 83 victories in the Viessmann Luge World Cup. At the same time, her success triggered a lot of joy in the German team. “This clearly shows our strong team-spirit”. At the same time the defending Viessmann Luge World Cup champion is setting her own record – with her ninth consecutive victory she now went undefeated for one year. “It’s my own little winning series”, she commented rather cautious even though there is no other athlete in the women’s singles who achieved the same feat in the World Cup.
The situation in the doubles’ event is a different story with different winners at every stop. At the season’s opener in Igls, Italy’s Gerhard Plankensteiner-Oswald Haselrieder surprisingly celebrated a victory, in Sigulda their compatriots Christian Oberstolz-Patrick Gruber stood atop the podium. And with two second places Olympic and former World champions Andreas Linger-Wolfgang Linger of Austria currently top the overall standings in the double-seater.
Germany’s doubles team intend to show their skills at the next World Cup stop in Winterberg. So far they failed to do so. “We intend to go for it”, said 2002 Olympic champions Patric Leitner-Alexander Resch, who finished on fifth and ninth position in Igls and Sigulda respectively. In Sigulda the defending overall World Cup champions complained about problems with the material. This is why Leitner-Resch will hardly be able to successfully defend their overall title.
