Jonas Müller successfully defends his European title / Max Langenhan and Nico Gleirscher are tied for the lead in the World Cup

Winterberg (FIL/19.01.2025) In the end, it was once again close at the EBERSPAECHER Luge World Cup in Winterberg. But the lead of Jonas Müller (Austria), who set a new track record of 50.722 seconds in the first run, was big enough ahead of Max Langenhan, so that Müller was able to successfully defend his European title. During the break between the two runs, the German said that he would be able to catch up the 0.109 seconds with a clean run. In the end, the World Champion was only able to halve the difference to 0.055 seconds. He also managed to overtake Nico Gleirscher (0.101 seconds back).

In addition to successfully defending his title, Müller was pleased with his performance in the first run. “The first run was the best this week,” he said. When he made a mistake in the lower part of the track in the second run, he feared he would lose the title. But his German rival Langenhan also made a mistake. “This was not the race I had hoped for,” said the 25-year-old, ‘I made mistakes in both runs: Normally that's the end of the race, so second place is a gift.’ In this respect, the result is fine with him: ”Jonas skied perfectly in the first run today, he deserved to win.”

Wolfgang Kindl (Austria) missed the podium in fourth place. He was 0.223 seconds slower than his compatriot Müller in the 1324-meter-long ice track. Felix Loch (Germany/0.323) followed closely behind, overtaking Dominik Fischnaller (Italy/0.575). After the 2018 Olympic Champion David Gleirscher (AUT/+0.687), the Ukrainian Anton Dukach (+0.950) sensationally took eighth place. Dukach had set a new track record in the Nations Cup on Friday and also put in two great runs in the VELTINS EisArena on Sunday.

In the overall World Cup standings, Nico Gleirscher and Max Langenhan are now tied for the lead with 456 points. For Langenhan, this means that he can choose his starting bib before his home race in Oberhof next weekend. Either the yellow jersey of the World Cup leader or the jersey of the World Champion.

In the U23 ranking, Timon Grancagnolo was in the lead. The German finished tenth in the race in 1:42.759 minutes, with the Latvian Gints Berzins following just behind in 0.061 seconds.

Results could be found here:
56th FIL European Championships: fil-luge.org/en/multimedia/56th-fil-european-championships
6th EBERSPÄCHER World Cup: fil-luge.org/en/multimedia/eberspaecher-world-cup-40