Martins Bots and Roberts Plume surprise themselves

Altenberg (FIL/11 Jan 2025) Martins Bots and Roberts Plume were the sovereigns in the men's doubles race at the EBERSPAECHER Luge World Cup in Altenberg.

The two Latvians cruised to an unchallenged victory in 1:23.900 minutes. It goes without saying that they were able to defend their lead in the World Cup standings and were satisfied afterwards. But they were also a little surprised. “These were the two best runs this week,” said backdriver Plume, “we were really surprised when we came through curve nine so well. And before the second run, we said to ourselves: if it works once, it will work a second time.” No sooner said than done.

There were plenty of position changes between the two runs behind them. Olympic champions Tobias Wendl and Tobias Arlt were able to improve by one position. The six-time Olympic champions from Germany finished second, 0.123 seconds behind.

They pushed Yannick Müller/Armin Frauscher (Austria) down to third place by eight thousandths of a second. “We made a few small mistakes at the start and in curve nine,” said Müller, ‘but we are happy.’ This only applies to a limited extent to their compatriots Thomas Steu and Wolfgang Kindl. The duo completely messed up the first run, finishing tenth in the intermediate standings. With the fastest run in heat two, they were able to improve to fourth place, just 0.353 seconds behind.

Hannes Orlamünder and Paulk Gubitz also made a leap forward, albeit not as great as Steu and Kindl. From eighth place, they improved to fifth position (0.499). And they were also able to overtake the US double Marcus Mueller/Ansel Haugsjaa (0.595). After a poor second run, the Italians Ivan Nagler/Fabian Malleier fell back to tenth place after finishing fourth at halftime.