Nations Cup victories for Sandra Robatscher, Langenhan and Rieder/Kainzwaldner in Sigulda (LAT)

Sigulda (FIL/06 Jan 2023) Italy, Latvia, Ukraine, Germany, Poland, Sweden and Slovakia take the podium places in the FIL Nations Cup on Friday, January 6, 2023 on the only artificial ice luge track in the Balticium. Sandra Robatscher, Max Langenhan and the doubles Emanuel Rieder / Simon Kainzwaldner were the fastest in Sigulda, Latvia.

In best ice conditions and wintry minus 16 degrees Celsius, Sandra Robatscher was the fastest of 29 ladies. The 27-year-old South Tyrolean won with a running time of 41.937 seconds ahead of last year's 22-year-old winner Elina Ieva Vitola (LAT/+0.033) and Vitola's teammate, the 26-year-old local hero Kendija Aparjode (+0.046). Winner Robatscher beamed after the race: "It feels good to win again and to be injury-free after the last two years. Sigulda is not really my favorite track, but I was already quite fast here last year and I just hope that it will work out tomorrow at the World Cup".

In the men's singles Max Langenhan, on his comeback after hand injury, celebrated the Nations Cup victory. The 23-year-old from Thuringia was a good three-tenths of a second faster than Andriy Mandziy (+0.329) with a running time of 47.996 seconds. The 34-year-old Ukrainian finished ahead of his teammate Anton Dukach and Svante Kohala from Sweden in equal bronze (+0.333). While it was the third Nations Cup podium for the 27-year-old sports teacher from Lviv in Western Ukraine, the 24-year-old Swede took the first podium place in the luge history of his country.

Langenhan was happy about his comeback and the interesting race: "Unbelievable. When I saw Svante's time, I didn't know if I could race that and win. I am very happy for him and his first podium. Svante was really very fast and Andriy and Anton also showed great runs. I had to show a good performance to win this. I still have pain in my hand, especially with certain movements. But at some point you have to start again!"

In the Nations Cup of the doubles, Emanuel Rieder and Simon Kainzwaldner were the fastest in 41.791 seconds. The year before, the two Italians had also won here, but the track was slower then and the running times about four tenths of a second worse. Rieder/Kainzwaldner drove the first Nations Cup of the season and are normally to be found in the seeded group as well as the Polish duo Wojciech Chmielewski and Jakub Kowalewski on rank two (+0,251). Tomas Vavercak and Matej Zmij finished third, +0.418 seconds behind the winners. The two 23-year-old Slovaks had already won a Nations Cup in St. Moritz once.

The 29-year-old Emanuel Rieder was happy and praised the Latvian track workers: "The track here in Sigulda is in excellent condition again. We really enjoy riding here." And his 28-year-old backdriver confirmed: "Sigulda is one of our absolute favorite tracks!" The duo from South Tyrol then proved this from start to finish with the fastest times.

In the overall ranking of the Nations Cup Sandra Robatscher (ITA), David Noessler (GER) and Devin Wardrope/Cole Zajanski (CAN) are leading after four of nine races.

Through the Nations Cup, which will be run in one race on Friday, athletes qualify for the EBERSPÄCHER World Cup on Saturday and Sunday. The fastest twelve sleds of the last three World Cup races are seeded and do not have to go to the Nations Cup for qualification. For them, there will be the training of the seeded group as the last run before the World Cup on the artificial track in Sigulda, Latvia, on Friday, January 6, starting at 14:30 local time.

Detailed results and further information about the 4th EBERSPÄCHER Luge World Cup and of course about the Nations Cup can be found under the following link: https://www.fil-luge.org/en/multimedia/eberspaecher-world-cup-21

All World Cup races can be followed on the FIL YouTube channel in livestream at: FIL Luge - YouTube https://www.youtube.com/@FILLuge_Channel

(In Germany, Latvia and Austria partly geo-blocked due to live TV broadcasts). TV times can be found on the FIL website at the following link: https://www.fil-luge.org/cdn/uploads/2022-23-tv-exposure-4-sigulda.pdf

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