Gough the figurehead of upcoming World Cup event in Calgary/A lot of excitement in the doubles‘
Calgary (pps) Already prior of the third stop of the Viessmann Luge World Cup next weekend (December 10-11) in Calgary, Canada, a first trend is evident in the overall rankings of the women’s and men’s singles as well as the doubles’ events. Olympic champion Tatjana Huefner (Germany), Italy’s Armin Zoeggeler and David Moeller of Germany, both tied for first place, as well as Italy’s European doubles’ champions Christian Oberstolz-Patrick Gruber are currently claiming the top spots.
With two convincing wins in Innsbruck-Igls and Winterberg, defending champion Tatjana Huefner made it quite clear that she has her eyes set on winning her fourth successive overall World Cup victory. Even Huefner’s team-mates are worried by her big lead. “We need to diminish the gap to Tatjana”, said Olympic bronze medallist Natalie Geisenberger. Huefner heads the rankings with a total of 200 points, followed by Geisenberger (170). Current World champion Erin Hamlin (USA) and Anke Wischnewski (GER) both have 120 points to their credit and are thus tied for third place. Junior World champion Carina Schwab (GER/101) holds fifth place ahead of Canada’s Alex Gough (90), who achieved a third place finish in Winterberg and thus her best ever career result. The World Championship fourth-placed seems to be the best figurehead for the upcoming World Cup stop in the host city of the 1988 Olympic Winter Games.
„The old man is simply too fast“, Olympic silver medallist David Moeller remarked with regard to Zoeggler’s anniversary victory in Winterberg. Exactly four weeks prior to his 37th birthday (January 4, 2011), Zoeggeler took the top spot of the podium for the 50th time. Behind Zoeggeler and Moeller (both tied for first place with 170 points), Felix Loch of Germany holds third position (160). Reinhold Egger of Austria quite surprisingly follows on fourth place, having collected 115 points.
Even without a victory to their credit so far, Christian Oberstolz-Patrick Gruber (170) are heading the overall doubles’ rankings. Tobias Wendl-Tobias Arlt (160), who won the World Cup in Winterberg, follow on second place. The US doubles’ with Christian Niccum-Jayson Terdiman (125 points) continue the US tradition of good performances in the doubles’. In the 1996-1997 season, Chris Thorpe-Gordy Sheer claimed first place on the overall rankings and Mark Grimmette, recently appointed “Sport Program Director” of USA Luge, even took the overall World Cup crown three times together with his partner Brian Martin (1997-1998; 1998-1999 and 2002-2003).
