A busy Wolfgang Kindl on the podium twice

Oberhof (FIL/18. Feb. 2024) – Wolfgang Kindl generally has no reason to complain about a lack of work at the EBERSPAECHER Luge World Cup. After all, since this season, the 35-year-old Austrian has been competing in both singles and doubles together with his partner Thomas Steu. However, at the Sprint World Cup in Oberhof, the 2017 doubles World Champion faced a special challenge: the doubles race was scheduled immediately after the singles race. "It's already challenging to be among the top athletes in one discipline," said his teammate Jonas Müller, "but Wolfi is at the top in both doubles and singles - my greatest respect." In the Sprint, he made it onto the podium in third place. He was 0.033 seconds slower than winner Max Langenhan (33.562 seconds), who won ahead of Müller (0.024) and was thus able to extend his lead in the overall World Cup again (840:664 points). Kindl himself downplayed the double burden: "None of this is a problem, I'm already wearing my racing suit anyway, so I can ride up to the start quickly and go back down again together with Thomas."

Although Steu/Kindl were not as successful as they had been when they won the race on Saturday, second place is also an outstanding result. "I've never been this successful before," Kindl said jubilantly, "to be on the podium twice in one day is amazing." They were 0.022 behind Hannes Orlamünder and Paul Gubitz, who secured their first World Cup victory with a run time of 26.027 seconds. Their German teammates Tobias Wendl/Tobias Arlt came in third (0.096 seconds behind). "We had a decent run," said Orlamünder, "but the others also helped us with their many mistakes."

There is no female athlete competing in both singles and doubles. However, there are the Egle sisters. Selina claimed gold with her partner Lara Kipp in 26.425 seconds. "The Sprint suits us very well because the start is not so important," said Egle. Dajana Eitberger and Saskia Schirmer, the winners from the previous day, came in second, 0.112 seconds behind. Andrea Vötter and Marion Oberhofer (Italy/0.114) were very close behind. "Yesterday we were second with a lead of two thousandths of a second, today we're two thousandths of a second short of second place," said Voetter, "it's very exciting, it's great fun."

For Madeleine Egle, things did not go as usual in the Sprint. She only finished twelfth, 0.372 seconds behind winner Julia Taubitz (Germany), who clocked a time of 25.864 seconds. On the other hand, Natalie Maag (Switzerland/0.094 seconds behind) finished second ahead of Anna Berreiter (Germany/0.150). "After Altenberg, I now really like the Sprint," said the Swiss athlete, who had also finished second at the World Championships - also behind her training companion Julia Taubitz. The latter couldn't stop celebrating: "To now add the 26th win after my jubilee victory is absolutely amazing."

At the closing of the two luge weeks in Oberhof, Max Langenhan expressed his gratitude to the track staff. "I have the greatest respect for the way they repeatedly prepared the ice perfectly in these difficult conditions," said the German, "we were only a tenth of a second slower than the track record."