KÜHTAI. The GRM Group Luge World Cup on Natural Track started in the new season with the kick-off event in Kühtai (AUT). On Saturday, December 2nd 2017, the training runs for all categories were held as well as the first competition run for the doubles’ event.

And there was one pairing in particular that demonstrated their skills: Patrick Pigneter/Florian Clara (ITA) not only dominated both training runs of the doubles, but also the first competition run – the Italians ranked first with a time of 0:33.33 minutes and had a lead of nearly half a second over the Russian runner-ups Pavel Porshnev/Ivan Lazarev, who had won the previous season’s overall standings. The reigning World Champions Rupert Brüggler/Tobias Angerer (AUT) came in third, 57 hundredths after Pigneter/Clara.

At the men’s event, the World Cup champion of 2016/2017, Austrian Thomas Kammerlander, was the best in the training runs – but with a time of 0:31.36 he was only two hundredths faster in the second training run than his toughest competitors Patrick Pigneter (ITA) and Michael Scheikl (AUT), who had the same run time and shared the second rank.
At the women’s competition, Sara Bachmann (GER) stood on top after the second training run: She finished with a time of 0:32.60 minutes and kept runner-up Tina Unterberger (AUT), who had been the fastest athlete in the first training run, with a lead of 62 hundredths at bay. Evelin Lanthaler from Italy ranked third.

On Sunday, December 3rd, the final runs in all categories as well as the team competition will be executed.

LINK live stream:
http://www.fil-luge.org/en/live-streaming-natural

LINK results:
http://www.fil-luge.org/en/multimedia/grm-group-luge-world-cup-on-natural-track-5