Surprise in the Men's Doubles: Orlamünder/Gubitz are World Champions and Egle/Kipp defend Women's

Whistler (FIL/07 Feb 2025) This outcome in the men's doubles at the 53rd FIL World Championships 2025 is a surprise: Hannes Orlamünder and Paul Gubitz were the fastest in both runs on the ice track in Whistler. In 1:16.538 minutes, the two Germans therefore became deserved world champions. Previously, an eighth place last year was the best World Championship result for the two 25-year-olds. “We managed two phenomenal runs,” said front man Orlamünder, “we like the track in Whistler.” Teammate Tobias Arlt paid tribute to their performance: “If the two of them don't make any mistakes, they're hard to beat on this track.” They had already become Vice World Champions in the new mixed event at their first appearance at the 53rd FIL Luge World Championships. “It's just incredible,” said Orlamünder. “After yesterday's result with the silver medal, we had already dreamt of winning.” And as if they didn't want to leave any doubt as to who the title holders are, they immediately put on the world champion jersey.

At halftime, it still looked like a German double victory. But the Latvians Martins Bots and Roberts Plume were able to displace Tobias Wendl and Tobias Arlt from second place. “We gave it our all, it was a very good second run,” said Plume, “the result fits.” They were 0.102 seconds behind the winners. Wendl/Arlt were 0.133 seconds behind. Thomas Steu and Wolfgang Kindl (Austria/0.156) came in fourth ahead of Toni Eggert/Florian Müller (Germany/0.283) and Yannick Müller/Armin Frauscher (Austria/0.310). The defending champions Juri Gatt and Riccardo Schöpf did not do so well. The Austrians finished ninth, 0.456 seconds behind.

By contrast, the result in the women's race was not a big surprise. Selina Egle and Lara Kipp, the great dominators of this season, took the doubles title after winning the mixed title. The two Austrians laid the foundation for their success with a new track record of 38.858 seconds in the first run. Their total time was 1:17.724 minutes. “It's insane,” said Egle, pleased with the successful title defense, “after this week of training, we really didn't expect to win two titles.”

Jessica Degenhardt and Cheyenne Rosenthal came in second, just 0.029 seconds behind. “We can't complain,” said Degenhardt, who was still weak from the flu, “after this week, this is more of a victory.”
On the other hand, Dajana Eitberger and partner Magdalena Matschina (Germany) were surprised by their third place, 0.060 seconds behind. “After our crashes at the World Cups in Lillehammer and Sigulda, we didn't think there would be a happy ending,” said Eitberger.

Fourth went to Italy's Andrea Voetter and Marion Oberhofer (0.173) ahead of Chevonne Forgan and Sophia Kirkby (0.244). The US athletes had one small consolation: they set a new start record of 3.357 seconds. Marta Robezniece-Kitija Bogdanova of Latvia (0.357) followed in sixth place.