Oberhof (pps) World Champion Felix Loch of Germany is starting to
dominate the Olympic luge season. At the seventh stop of the Viessmann
Luge World Cup series in Oberhof, Germany, the 2010 Olympic Champion
celebrated his fourth top podium finish this season. Claiming his 17th
individual victory Loch defeated team mate and World Championship
silver medalist Andi Langenhan to second place. Langenhan thus punched
the third ticket in the men’s singles for Germany at the upcoming
Olympic Winter Games in Sochi, Russia (February 7-23, 2014). Former
Junior World Champion Julian Schleinitz (Germany) earned a third place
finish while Russia’s Albert Demchenko claimed a fourth place result.
Two-time Olympic Champion Armin Zoeggeler of Italy caused quite a stir
when he almost crashed in the first run. The last time the record World
Champion made a similar mistake was four years ago during the training
runs at the Olympic Games in Vancouver. In the end, the 40-year old
veteran had to make do with a 22nd place finish.
With two more World Cup events to come (Altenberg/GER next weekend and
Sigulda/LAT on January 25-26), Loch is heading the overall Viessmann
Luge World Cup rankings with 585 points ahead of David Moeller (455
points) who finished in fifth place in Oberhof and Italian Dominik
Fischnaller (451), who claimed a 10th place result.
Quotes
Felix Loch (GER / 2010 Olympic and four-time World Champion)
“Setting up two track records is not too bad… We’ve worked hard and
this is now paying off. I always like to come to Oberhof and I like
Altenberg, too, where we’ll have the next World Cup. And Sochi is one
of the tracks I count among those I like.”
Andi Langenhan (GER / 2013 World runner-up)
“This is such a relief! I’m absolutely happy that I finally punched my
ticket to the Olympic Games”
Julian von Schleinitz (GER / multiple junior World Champion)
“Finally I achieved a good result this winter. So far I’ve always
crashed in the races. And even today I didn’t perform well. I was on a
tight rope between a crash and the podium.”
