Record chase in the Winterberg ice track: European Championship titles for Wendl/Arlt and Egle/Kipp

Winterberg (FIL/18.01.2025) The doubles at the EBERSPAECHER Luge World Cup in Winterberg delivered a true record race. The track record was broken fifteen times – ten times in the men's and five times in the women's doubles. At least in the men's event, however, nothing has changed, as the new record holders are the same as before: Tobias Wendl and Tobias Arlt (Germany) with 42.940 seconds. In the women's event, Jessica Degenhardt/Cheyenne Rosenthal (Germany) beat the interim record of Selina Egle and Lara Kipp (Austria/43.260) to 43.151 seconds.

Wendl/Arlt were able to beat the existing best time twice, so there was no doubt that they deserved to win their 55th World Cup race. At the same time, it was their fifth European Championship title. “We will frame this result very prominently,” said Wendl, who was in front, “with such weather, such an audience, and such fair conditions, we improved the track record twice and we are overjoyed.” Runner-up Arlt was also euphoric: “We've already won everything, but we're not done yet. It's great that we kept the Austrians at bay.”

Wendl-Arlt were followed home by three Austrian duos. Juri Gatt-Riccardo Schöpf finished second, 0.134 seconds back, with Yannick Müller-Armin Frauscher (0.202) and title defenders Thomas Steu-Wolfgang Kindl (0.211) in third. They were followed by Toni Eggert/Florian Müller (Germany/0.219) and Martins Bots/Roberts Plume (Latvia/0.278).

In the women's race, Egle/Kipp won the race and thus both the European title and the U23 title. It was their twelfth World Cup victory, the fifth in a row. The two Austrians completed their two runs in 1:26.467 minutes. “In the first run, we made a mistake in the labyrinth, and in the second, we made a mistake at the start,” said Selina Egle. And Lara Kipp added: “Phew, that was close. We are really happy that we were in front in the end.” Their lead over the defending champions Degenhardt/Rosenthal was just fourteen thousandths of a second. “We can count ourselves lucky to have come second at the European Championships,” said Degenhardt, “even though we're a little annoyed because it was very close.” Nevertheless, partner Rosenthal drew a positive conclusion: “We can leave Winterberg knowing that we can win.” Third place went to Andrea Vötter/Marion Oberhofer (Italy/0.221) ahead of the two Germans Dajana Eitberger/Magdalena Matschina (0.515). They were followed by two doubles from Latvia: Marta Robezniece/Kitija Bogdanova (0.570) ahead of Anda Upite/Zane Kaluma (0.620). The US doubles team of Chevonne Forgan/Sophia Kirkby finished in seventh place (0.643).

The U-23 men's title was won by the Slovakian team of Christian Bosman/Bruno Mick. They finished 1.947 seconds behind the winners.

Detailed results and further information are available at the following links:

56. FIL EM: https://www.fil-luge.org/de/ergebnisse/56-fil-europameisterschaften

6. EBERSPÄCHER Weltcup: https://www.fil-luge.org/de/ergebnisse/eberspaecher-weltcup-41

Additional schedule 6th EBERSPÄCHER World Cup &

56th FIL European Championships in Winterberg

Local start time (CET/MEZ)

Saturday, January 18, 2025

2:00 p.m. Women's singles, 1st run
3:20 p.m. Women's singles, 2nd run

Sunday, January 19, 2025

09:25 a.m. Men's single, 1st run
10:45 a.m. Men's single, 2nd run

12:30 p.m. Team relay

All information is subject to change!