Juri Gatt and Riccardo Schöpf confirm their World Championship victory

Altenberg (FIL/03. Feb. 2024) Juri Gatt and Riccardo Schöpf confirmed their World Championship victory of a week ago. The two Austrians also won the EBERSPAECHER Luge World Cup in Altenberg ahead of their team-mates Thomas Steu and Wolfgang Kindl. Both doubles slid the same time of 42.460 seconds in the second run, which was 0.008 seconds faster than Gatt/Schöpf in the first run. Their final time: 1:24.991 minutes.

"We feel super comfortable on this track," said a satisfied Juri Gatt, "after the World Championship title we just knew we could do it. Thomas Steu was self-critical: "We were a bit too slow at the bottom. But his team-mate Wolfgang Kindl also said: "Yuri and Riccardo were too fast again today. We didn't sled clean in the first run and then it wasn't enough to win, but we're really happy about the double victory for Team Austria".  

At the halfway point, Germany's Tobias Wendl/Tobias Arlt were 0.038 seconds ahead. However, the six-time Olympic Champions, who finished third at the World Championships, made a mistake in turn nine in both their first and second runs, where they once again failed to find their line. This had serious consequences, especially in the second run. With the 20th run time they dropped back to 16th place (1.066 seconds back).

The Italian duo Emanuel Rieder/Simon Kainzwalder took advantage of this and finished on the podium with a time of 1:25.116 minutes. Like their compatriots Ivan Nagler and Fabian Malleier, they had adapted their setup to the conditions of five degrees Celsius and drizzle during the break. "Now we know which setup we have to use for our sleds in such conditions", said Rieder.

After 14th place in the first run Nagler/Malleier improved to fifth place (0.346) with the second-best time. The Latvians Martins Bots/Roberts Plume (0.135) with the fastest time in the second run were able to move up between the two Italian doubles. Sixth place went to Dana Kellog/Frank Ike (0.371) from the USA.   

With their second place Steu/Kindl extended their lead in the overall World Cup standings. With 486 points they are 76 points ahead of Bots/Plume and Wendl/Arlt, who dropped back to third place with 405 points.