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.”

Sieger Herrten