Dajana Eitberger and Max Langenhan win in Ilmenau

Ilmenau (FIL) Dajana Eitberger and Max Langenhan (both Germany) won the 29th FIL Summer Luge Cup on September 3, 2022 in Ilmenau, Thuringia (GER). The 23-year-old sports soldier Langenhan from Friedrichroda distanced the doubles specialist Paul Gubitz (Zella-Mehlis) to second place on the 430-meter-long summer luge track with eight curves and up to 12 percent gradients. Third place went to Sebastian Bley (Suhl). In the women's event, 2018 Olympic silver medalist Dajana Eitberger, who competes for local club RC Ilmenau, entered the winners' list for the 14th time. She relegated World Champion Julia Taubitz (WSC Oberwiesenthal) and Olympic fifth-place finisher Hannah Prock of Austria to second and third place. More than 50 lugers from five nations (Germany, Austria, Italy, Switzerland and Czech Republic) took part in the traditional Summer Cup in sunny weather.

Record winner Dajana Eitberger is happy: "Until recently, I didn't even know if I would be able to participate in the Summer Cup in Ilmenau. For the second time after December 2021 I had a positive Covid test. Emotionally and mentally, it was a real feat to drag myself out of this scenario again. My form was very much on the rise until the positive test and now I'm glad to have come through it so well. After a big blood count and all the tests of our team doctors, I was then able to accept for the FIL Cup. For me, the participation really paid off and I could now build up self-confidence that I am on the right track. Next week is the starting training. I'm really looking forward to that and in four weeks I'll be back on the ice."

The FIL Summer Cup is held annually on the first weekend of September at the luge track on the Floßberg in Ilmenau. International top athletes and young talents compete on roller sleds during the summer. The sleds will be driven with assigned wheel sleds.

The organizers of the competition around Siegbert Bussemer, race director Holger Hendrich, track director René Jäcklein and technical director Fabian Wenzel can be proud. They succeeded in creating a wonderful tobogganing festival for the whole family. "As I am used to from my home club, the FIL Cup 2022 was again a very nice and well organized event with many spectators and a lot of acquaintances and luge greats of past years", said the Olympic silver medalist of 2018 Dajana Eitberger.

Around the International Summer Luge Cup there was an entertaining supporting program for the whole family at the track at the Lindenberg with the Dixieland combo "Sunshine Brass", an autograph session of the well-known luge greats Dajana Eitberger, Julia Taubitz and Max Langenhahn as well as face painting for children, a bouncy castle, information and participation booths and a range of drinks and of course Thuringian bratwurst were part of it.
On Sunday, September 4, the toboggan club Ilmenau organized another children's taster session. Invited were all children from 5 years, who wanted to get a taste of tobogganing and try it out on the plastic track with roller toboggans. The interest was great and the experienced sledding coaches of the club had a lot to do.

History of the event

The Summer Luge Cup in Ilmenau was first held in 1990 as the "Wolfram Fiedler Memorial Race". The competition, which is organized with the support of many regional companies and private friends of the sport, has been held as an international race for juniors and general class since 1992 and has been established as FIL Summer Cup in the international calendar of the Federation Internationale de Luge (FIL) since 1994. The event is organized by the FIL (Fédération Internationale de Luge). The organizer is the team of the Rodelclub Ilmenau e.V. and the Thüringer Schlitten- und Bobsportverband (TSBV).

In 2017 and 2018, a livestream of the event could be offered. In 2004 and 2007, new competition modes were introduced to make the race even more exciting. As a result, the youth has the opportunity to compete with the greats of the sport of luge. In the qualifying runs on the first day, the starting numbers for the A and B races are determined. The women and juniors as well as the men and juniors will start in one classification for the first time. In the so-called "hope race", the best riders of the B-race can qualify for the A-race in a knock-out classification. In addition to the professional lugers, local political celebrities will also be competing in the "Celebrity Cup".

photos: Sven Schmutzler