Surprise of US doubles Zachary Di Gregorio and Sean Hollander

Lake Placid (FIL/08 Dec 2023) What a start into the EBERSPAECHER Luge World Cup in Lake Placid. On their 1,130 meters long home track at Mount Van Hoevenberg the doubles' team of Zachary Di Gregorio and Sean Hollander celebrated their first World Cup victory.

The last time a US doubles team of Mark Grimmette and Brian Martin won a World Cup was 18 years ago, in December 2005 in Calgary (CAN). The final time of the US duo, who has only been racing together since 2021, was 1:27.630 minutes. The second best time in both heats was enough for them to triumph ahead of Austria's Thomas Steu and Wolfgang Kindl. The new Austrian duo had set the fastest time of 43.645 seconds in the first run but made mistakes in turns seven and eight in the second run. "We didn't take any risks, the sled was set up on the safe side," said Steu, "I made a stupid driving mistake that was really unncecessary." In the end, they were 0.052 seconds behind Di Gregori/Hollander. Nevertheless, Wolfgang Kindl was satisfied with his debut in the doubles class. "I thought the transition would be more difficult," said two-time singles World Champion Kindl, "I already have a podium finish, now I can head into the men's race completely relaxed.

Austria's second team Juri Gatt/Riccardo Schöpf (0.072 seconds back) finished third ahead of Latvia's Martins Bots and Roberts Plume (0.111), Olympic Champions Tobias Wendl/Tobias Arlt (Germany/0.223), and Emanuel Rieder/Simon Kainzwaldner (Italy/0.331).

Selina Egle and Lara Kipp also caused a surprise. The Austrian duo had never raced on the Olympic track in Lake Placid before. Accordingly, the two Tyroleans approached the task with caution. "We were warned about the technically challenging track," said Lara Kipp, "so we were a bit scared and nervous. But we got along well right from the start, the track suits us". And so they set the fastest time in the first run.

In the end, they clocked 1:28.924 minutes. Dajana Eitberger and Saskia Schirmer (Germany) were 0.113 seconds longer on the track at their World Cup debut. "It was like all the races we've done together - I was unbelievably nervous, you could see that in the first run," the Sprint World Champion admitted after her first World Cup in doubles, "the second run was so much fun from start to finish, there's nothing to complain about.”

Last season's overall World Cup winners Andrea Vötter and Marion Oberhofer (Italy/0.546) finished third ahead of the US duo Chevonne Forgan-Sophia Kirkby (0.650).