Hannah Prock, Leon Felderer and Vavercak/Zmij the fastest at the Nations Cup in St. Moritz
St. Moritz (FIL/17 Feb 2023) Hannah Prock (AUT), Leon Felderer (ITA) and the double Tomas Vavercak / Matej Zmij (SVK) won the eighth FIL Nations Cup 2022/23 on Friday, February 17, 2023 at the Olympic Bob Run St. Moritz - Celerina.
On the only natural ice track in the World Cup circuit, 23-year-old Hannah Prock of Austria won at minus three degrees Celsius in 54.492 seconds ahead of Verena Hofer (Italy) and Lisa Schulte (Austria), who were tied in time, five hundredths of a second behind Prock. As in Winterberg the week before, the Tyrolean decided the Nations Cup in her favor. "It's a nice start with a gold medal into the weekend. Although I would of course prefer to race in the seeded group. But with zero points in Sigulda, that was currently not possible." With the second place Verena Hofer extended her lead in the overall ranking.
In the men's event Leon Felderer won for the second time after Innsbruck last year, the FIL Nations Cup in 1:05.858 minutes from the top start in St. Moritz. The 22-year-old sports soldier from Latzfons beamed: "I am happy about the victory. It was only my second in the Nations Cup. Surely the track will be even faster when the sun comes out right now. But it is great fun to sled on the natural ice track from Sankt Moritz to Celerina. It is something very special". Second behind Felderer was the German Timon Grancagnolo (+0.082) ahead of the winner of the previous week Valentin Cretu from Romania (0.326 back). The overall Nations Cup ranking was defended by Lukas Gufler from Italy in fifth place.
In the Nations Cup of the doubles Tomas Vavercak / Matej Zmij were the fastest from the Montis Bolt start in 54.269 seconds. The two 23-year-old Slovaks could already win in St. Moritz two years ago and repeated this success at the 2023 Nations Cup in St. Moritz. "We really like the natural ice track here and are looking forward to the World Cup race tomorrow," said Matej Zmij. Tudor-Stefan Handaric and Sebastian Motzca of Romania (+0.896) sledged to second place ahead of Filip Vejdelek and Zdenek Pekny of the Czech Republic (+1.403).
Vavercak/Zmij are leading the overall 2022/2023 Nations Cup standings with four podiums, including one win. The final will take place next week in Winterberg.
In the women's doubles, young lugers Lisa Zimmermann and Dorothea Schwarz from Austria, who are only 17 years old, will celebrate their World Cup premiere on Saturday, February 18 in St. Moritz. The two young Tyrolean women will start into their first World Cup with the starting number one from the Nations Cup. The two juniors have already shown a great start at the Nations Cup. In the men's doubles category, the two girls would have finished third with a run time of 55.520.
Detailed results and further information about the 8th EBERSPÄCHER Luge World Cup 2022/2023 in St. Moritz, the Nations Cup and the trainings can be found under the following link: https://www.fil-luge.org/de/ergebnisse/eberspaecher-weltcup-26
Schedule & TV broadcasts
Local start time (=CET/MEZ)
Friday, February 17, 2023
13:00 Training seeded groups
Saturday, February 18, 2023
08:30 Men's doubles, 1st run
09:20 hrs Women's doubles, 1st run
10:15 Men's doubles, 2nd run
11:05 hrs Ladies doubles, 2nd run
12:20 Men, 1st run
13:45 Men, 2nd run
Sunday, February 19, 2023
08:50 Ladies, 1st run
10:20 hrs Ladies, 2nd run
12:30 Team Relay
All information is without guarantee.
Link to the live TV broadcast and the FIL Media Guide with information on athletes:
https://www.fil-luge.org/de/multimedia
FIL Studio: From 30 minutes before and after all races you will find live interviews with the winners and background information about the races always live in the FIL Studio on our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@FILLuge_Channel
