Berchtesgaden (pps) At the Viessmann Luge World Cup event on the artificially iced track in Koenigssee on January 7, 2007 at exactly 13:00 hrs, a world première will be presented: The modified relay competition of the International Luge Federation, FIL, will then celebrate its debut.

With this première a two-year planning stage is coming to an end. The long period of time has been necessary in order to solve all safety problems and to develop the necessary hardware and software. A sufficient number of tests had to be carried out as well.

According to the plans of FIL President Josef Fendt, of Germany, the innovative and attractive relay event shall replace the previous team competition. At the end of November, the Executive Board of the International Olympic Committee, IOC, rejected the FIL application to include the team competition at the 2010 Olympic Winter Games in Vancouver.

“The addition of individual run times is not appreciated within the IOC”, FIL President Fendt analysed the situation. “However, with a relay competition our situation will be totally different. For each team the clock is running right from the start of the first sled – double-seater, women’s single and men’s single. We will not have a mere addition of times in this relay competition but a genuine team result.”

Germany’s national coach Thomas Schwab, who contributed significantly to the development of the relay format, fears numerous “copycats” prior the FIL world première. “I reckon that we will have the cutting edge. Numerous other winter sports will surely follow our example,” Schwab said. This is why he demands: “I want to have it guaranteed that the sport of luge will get the credit – we will probably be the first to have carried out such a truly novel competition. And this needs to be recognized within the IOC, too.”

The new relay format is easily explained: Each relay team consists of one double- seater, one women’s and one men’s single. All sleds start from the same height. Only when the doubles’ sled has activated a special pressure contact on a rubber mat at the finish, the women’s single is allowed to take off. The same principle applies when the “baton is passed” to the men’s single. The clock is running right from the start of the double-seater until the men’s single has passed the finishing line. Winner is the team with the fastest time.