World Champion Taubitz wins ahead of World Cup winner Geisenberger - Katnikova unlucky

Sochi (FIL) World Champion ahead of overall World Cup winner: In the second women's race of the EBERSPÄCHER Luge World Cup in Sochi, Julia Taubitz won with two flawless runs with 0.368 seconds ahead of her German team-mate Natalie Geisenberger.

Kendija Aparjode came in third and claimed her third World Cup podium, 0.422 seconds behind, after finishing second a week ago and a day after her brother Kristers' victory, the first ever World Cup win by a Latvian.

It was Taubitz's 14th World Cup win, but the 25-year-old was still delighted with her first victory of the season: "It's always a small milestone." Above all, she had improved her sliding performance compared to the previous week, when she had finished ninth. Dajana Eitberger (Germany) managed the fastest run time in heat two in 49.754 seconds.

Ekaterina Katnikova was very unlucky. The 27-year-old Russian had luged the second-fastest time behind Taubitz (49.677) in the first heat in 49.801 seconds. In run two, however, the double World Champion of 2020 lost her visor in turn eleven and virtually drove blind through the ice track because her eyes were watering and, of course, with the poor aerodynamics, without wind protection on the helmet, time is also lost.

Some teams competed in the two Sochi races under particularly difficult conditions. Eleven leading athletes were missing sleds and material completely. 33 material boxes had been held back by the Chinese customs for a long time and are currently still at the airport in Beijing.

That is why Andrea Vötter, for example, had to borrow equipment from others and still came seventh. Other athletes could not start at all.

Summer Britcher came tenth in the World Cup ranking, which meant she won the title of North American Champion for the first time. To her own surprise. "Normally the North American Championships are held in America," said the 27-year-old US-American, "here the focus was on the World Cup, so unfortunately there weren't so many competing here in Sochi. I think that's a little unfair. We should have this in North America and also introduce an U23 Championship for the younger athletes."

Detailed results and further information on the 3rd EBERSPÄCHER Luge World Cup of the 2021/22 season in Sochi (RUS) can be found at the following link: https://www.fil-luge.org/de/ergebnisse/eberspaecher-weltcup-17

The results for the 2022 America-Pacific Championships can be found here: https://www.fil-luge.org/de/ergebnisse/amerika-pazifik-meisterschaften-9