Altenberg (pps) The World Championship squad from Germany is approaching a successful title defense in the Viessmann Luge World Cup series. This weekend in Altenberg, Germany (January 18-19, 2014), Natalie Geisenberger, Felix Loch and the doubles team of Tobias Wendl-Tobias Arlt can lay any last doubts to rest.

As the season enters the last two World Cup events in Altenberg and Sigulda, Latvia, in two weeks’ time (January 25-26), 2010 Olympic bronze medalist Geisenberger enjoys a leading margin of 194 points over Olympic Champion Tatjana Huefner (Germany). “There’s nothing more that can be done…,” commented four-time World Champion Huefner and already congratulated competitor and teammate Geisenberger.

The doubles team of Wendl-Arlt have a comfortable lead of 125 points in the overall standings with teammates Eggert-Benecken in second position. The defending champions could well claim their third overall Viessmann Luge World Cup title after 2010-2011 and 2012-2013. Olympic Champion Felix Loch is clearly heading the overall rankings in the men‘s singles with 585 points to his credit ahead of David Moeller (455 points).

Apart from the competitions in the Viessmann Luge World Cup series, there are important decisions to be made in Altenberg with regard to the Olympic starting places: host Russia and Austria will announce their teams for the Winter Games in Sochi after the next World Cup event.

Medal candidates such as two-time Olympic Champions Andreas Linger-Wolfgang Linger and their red-white-red colleagues Peter Penz-Georg Fischler, bronze medal winners at the 2012 Worlds in Altenberg, can be sure of their ticket to the Olympic Games. The same holds true for Russia’s two-time European Champion Tatiana Ivanova and veteran Albert Demchenko. As the rest of the starting places are yet to be determined, a lot of excitement is guaranteed.