Max Langenhan triumphs at the Race of Records

Lillehammer (FIL/01 Dec 2024) Max Langenhan demonstrated his strength right at the season opening of the EBERSPAECHER Luge World Cup in Lillehammer (NOR). Last season's overall World Cup winner won the first race in 1:37.338 minutes. Wolfgang Kindl (Austria) followed 27 hundredths of a second behind, ahead of Felix Loch (0.184 seconds back). The three-time Olympic champion improved the track record to 48.371 seconds with a second strong run. The old record of 48.861 seconds had been set by Semen Pavlichenkov (Russia) on 19 January 2020.

This men's race was a race of records. First, the American Tucker West improved the start record of Olympic champion Johannes Ludwig (Germany) from 4.366 seconds to 4.335 in the first run. Then it was one after the other in the second run. First, David Nössler (Germany) was pleased with his time of 48.542 seconds. But only briefly, because Nico Gleirscher (Austria) crossed the finish line after 47.527 seconds. And then Loch set the final time of 48.371 seconds.

While most of the sliders were satisfied with their second run, winner Max Langenhan was unhappy despite his 15th World Cup victory. The 25-year-old almost crashed in curve 13. ‘It got a lot faster out of turn 13 in the second run,’ said Langenhan, ‘but in the end I was still happy to save the two hundredths of a second to the finish.’ Wolfgang Kindl was annoyed about this difference. ‘I was very close to Felix and his track record, I could have found the one hundredth, and the 27 thousandths to Max,’ said the 36-year-old, ‘but I'm still absolutely happy.’

Veteran Wolfgang Kindl had no complaints about the conditions, explaining: ‘The ice was very soft, so it's hard to adjust the equipment to it.’ Felix Loch managed it perfectly. ‘I made a few more changes to the sled for the second run, and I think that was the right decision,’ said the 35-year-old, ‘with the track record, I showed that the old man can still be really fast in a luge.’

Timon Grancagnolo ensured a perfect team result for Germany with a fourth-place finish, 0.281 seconds behind Jonathan Gustafson (USA/0.289). Dominik Fischnaller (Italy) made too many small mistakes, especially in the second run, so that he could not finish higher than sixth place (0.326).