Preview 9th EBERSPAECHER Luge World Cup in Sigulda (LAT):
World Cup final in Sigulda / Decisions in the Overall women's and men's doubles World Cup and team relay open
Sigulda (FIL/28. Feb. 2024) For the grand final of the 46th EBERSPAECHER World Cup season, the athletes will once again be competing for the final World Cup points in Sigulda (Latvia) this weekend from March 1 to 3. In addition to the races in the EBERSPAECHER Luge World Cup, the last team relay competition of the EBERSPAECHER Team Relay World Cup presented by BMW is on the program on Sunday. It will be a truly special final Sunday, as the final World Cup run for the men and women will be held on Sunday for the first time.
After the small crystal globes in the Sprint World Cup were awarded at the same venue last week, it's now down to the discipline rankings in the EBERSPAECHER Luge World Cup and the decisions in the Overall World Cup. 126 athletes from 16 nations will be competing this weekend. There are 31 women's and 31 men's singles as well as eleven women's and 21 men's doubles.
World Cup final with new race format
A new format will be tested for the first time at this year's World Cup final. The men's and women's races will be held on both days, i.e. the first run on Saturday and the decisive second run on Sunday. FIL Sports Director Matthias Böhmer is expecting even more excitement from this. "These are the last races in the World Cup and there are still important points to win in the discipline and overall World Cup. To keep things exciting for the spectators on site, but also for the TV viewers, we have planned a real final day for Sunday this time, with the decisions in the individual disciplines and in the team relay. This is something new and we will have an exciting World Cup final on Sunday. We had discussed this in advance with the athletes' representatives, who are effectively our voice to the athletes. The athletes' representatives were just as enthusiastic as the TV broadcasters. Ultimately, we can't reinvent the sport of luge, but perhaps we can make it more exciting with small changes like this."
Overall World Cup decision thrilling to the end - only Taubitz and Langenhan early overall individual winners
In addition to the large crystal globes for winning the EBERSPAECHER Overall World Cup (12 races), the FIL will also be awarding small crystal globes for the overall discipline winners (9 races without sprint) of the classic EBERSPAECHER Luge World Cup this weekend. The decisions in the Sprint World Cup were already made last week in Sigulda: Julia Taubitz (GER), Max Langenhan (GER), Martins Bots and Roberts Plume (LAT) as well as Selina Egle and Lara Kipp (AUT) were crowned the overall winners of the 2023/24 FIL Sprint World Cup.
Julia Taubitz has already defended her title in the women's event. The 27-year-old German has won the overall World Cup for the fourth time (third time in a row). She has an unassailable lead of 995 points ahead of team-mate Anna Berreiter (706) and Austria's Madeleine Egle (700), who are still in a head-to-head race for places. Taubitz thus continues the impressive run of success of the German lugers, who have won the overall World Cup since 1999. The last female luger to win outside the German team was the Italian Gerda Weißensteiner 26 years ago.
In the battle for the overall men's World Cup, the decision has already been taken in favor of Max Langenhan. The German has stood on the podium in ten races so far, six of them at the top, and can celebrate the first major crystal globe of his career. The 24-year-old leads the overall standings with 970 points ahead of Kristers Aparjods (LAT, 741) and Jonas Müller (AUT, 681). However, it remains exciting here, because with his two victories last weekend, Germany's Felix Loch is in the hunt with 680 points.
The Italians Andrea Vötter and Marion Oberhofer have a comfortable cushion of 94 points in the overall women's doubles World Cup going into the final race, but the recent crash of Degenhardt/Rosenthal in the sprint has shown that you have to reach the finish in Sigulda first. The newly formed German pairing of Dajana Eitberger/Saskia Schirmer are currently in second place with 801 points, closely followed by their teammates Jessica Degenhardt/Cheyenne Rosenthal (795) and the Austrians Selina Egle/Lara Kipp (789).
The men's doubles will also be decided in the last race. The Austrians Thomas Steu/Wolfgang Kindl have performed an impressive debut season on the ice track. They finished on the podium nine times in eleven races, three of them at the top. With 896 points, they clearly lead the overall standings ahead of the Germans Tobias Wendl/Tobias Arlt (800) and Martins Bots/Roberts Plume (776) and really only have to finish the race.
With a total of 48 relay victories, Team Germany leads the all-time statistics with a clear lead. This season, the team of departing head coach Norbert Loch has won three of the five team relays so far, but after finishing only in fifth place in Altenberg, the overall EBERSPÄCHER Team Relay World Cup presented by BMW has not yet been decided. Germany leads the ranking with 440 points ahead of Austria (400 p.), the USA (340 p.) and Latvia (295 p.).
The current standings in all rankings can be viewed here: fil-luge.org/en/overall-scores?event_season_id=31
Last World Cup for Norbert Loch as German national coach
On the occasion of the 2024 FIL Luge World Championships in Altenberg, Germany, the change at the top of the German luge team was announced. At the end of the current season, long-time German national head coach Norbert Loch will hand over the reins to his 46-year-old successor, Olympic Champion Patric Leitner. The team of Norbert Loch, who has led the German luge team since 2008, won its 97th World Championship medal and 44th gold at the farewell event. Loch's team won a total of 22 Olympic medals (13 gold, five silver and four bronze). The season final in Sigulda is therefore the last World Cup for Norbert Loch in his role as German national coach. We spoke to him beforehand. In this interview, he reveals how the handover in the German team will take place, why he particularly remembers the 2016 World Championships in Königssee, what challenges the sport of luge will face in the future and why he will miss Sigulda in particular as a World Cup venue.
Interview Norbert Loch: "Leading a team is my life!" (fil-luge.org)
Quotes:
Julia Taubitz (GER): „It's unbelievable. I've never won the overall World Cup this early. I can simply enjoy the last race! I think it's very good that the new format is being done like this. You always have to bring in new things and it's a cool decision to have a proper final day like this. Personally, I'm really looking forward to it because we're finally getting a bit closer to the Olympics. Sure, there are four runs at the Olympics, here we only have our two runs, but you have the night in between to reach a decision. We'll see how it turns out in the end, also for the spectators. That doesn't change my preparation. We usually have our race on Saturday and then the sprint race or the team relay on Sunday. There's also a night in between. You get your sled ready, keep yourself on your toes a bit so that you can fully attack again the next day.“
Max Langenhan (GER): "Of course it's great that I won the overall World Cup. But unfortunately I hurt myself in the first run and tried to at least pull off the second. That's why my joy was still a little reserved due to the pain.“
Thomas Steu (AUT): "I couldn't have imagined that after the last few years, my best result here was a fifth place and that was a long time ago. It was a spirited performance and a hard-fought third place. The result is great, it was important to pick up a few points for the overall World Cup.“
Wolfgang Kindl (AUT): "It was an intense, but ultimately very positive race weekend. In the doubles' sprint, the fast transitions weren't quite right and the speed was lacking. It wasn't good, but we stayed on target and have a very good starting position for the final. In the single-seater, the first run wasn't quite clean, but the rest was as I expected. The results are not bad, but we lacked the speed for more. With the current package, it's extremely difficult for me to finish on the podium in the single-seater under my own steam.“
Summer Britcher (USA): "I am not so sure, if I like the new format, because it might be risky with the weather. But we have to take risks and we have to try something. It could be really exciting. For the spectators it could be really exciting to have close back to back the two final events right there. I am hoping on a really good event. We can learn, we can grow and we can try more new things next year. I think it is great that the FIL is taking action and tryinging new things. For a long time we were not making changes for our sport. It is a shame that we have to do something like changing the start order like in Oberhof due to warm weather condition, but it speaks to the organisers right now and how ready and going everyone involved is to make changes to the sport, that will last, hopefully, for another 100 years.“
Emily Sweeney (USA): "It’s no secret there’s been a lot of lows this year so it's nice to throw together a good run and have it be competitive because I’ve had a lot of runs that were good but not competitive, and a lot of runs that would have been competitive but were not good. Everyone is working hard, and everyone is going for it, so it’s nice when it comes together for you.”
Zintis Saicans, National Head Coach Latvia: "We had a very good first weekend at our home track. Sigulda is one of the most difficult tracks in the world. Unfortunately, the quality of the track was affected by the weather. But in general, the ice masters of the track performed their work qualitatively. And the athletes demonstrated high-quality results. I think it is an excellently organized competition. Sigulda always welcomes all foreign athletes very warmly, they an really feel like at home. The final World Cup of the season promises to be very exciting. The fight for the overall rating, the fight for medals - emotions will definitely hit a high wave.“
Schedule & TV coverage 9. EBERSPÄCHER Luge World Cup, Sigulda 2 (LAT)
Local start time (=CET/MEZ)
Friday, March 1, 2024
09:00 (08:00) Nations Cup
14:30 (13:30) Training seeded group
Saturday, March 2, 2024
10:00 (09:00) Men’s Doubles, 1st run
10:48 (09:48) Women’s Doubles, 1st run
11:45 (10:45) Men’s Doubles, 2nd run
12:37 (11:37) Women’s Doubles, 2nd run
13:45 (12:45) Women’s Singles, 1st run
15:10 (14:10) Men’s Singles, 1st run
Sunday, March 3, 2024
10:00 (09:00) Women’s Singles, 2nd run
11:30 (10:30) Men’s Singles, 2nd run
13:30 (12:30) Team Relay
Subject to change without notice!
Live TV-Broadcast: fil-luge.org/en/multimedia/eberspaecher-world-cup-34
Link to athletes‘ biographies: Athletes Overview & Achievements - Int. Luge Federation FIL (fil-luge.org)
