Berchtesgaden (pps) Two Olympic victories, six World Championship titles, ten overall wins as well as 54 individual victories in the Viessmann Luge World Cup – the exceptionally gifted Armin Zoeggeler, on Italy’s junior luge team since 1991 and two years later on Italy’s national squad, seems to be bent on setting new records. As the first luger ever, the 37-year-old might take his eleventh overall World Cup victory and thus become sole record winner. So far, Zoeggeler and Markus Prock of Austria are tied for first place on the overall rankings, both having earned ten victories.
In the upcoming season Olympic and World champion Tatjana Huefner might go down in the history books of the International Luge Federation, FIL. Should the 28-year-old from Germany earn her fifth consecutive overall World Cup, she will draw level with the current record winner, Silke Kraushaar-Pielach (GER).
But prior to the first event of the new season in Innsbruck-Igls, however, the outstanding female luger of the past years is modest as always, referring to her season’s goals. "Of course I’ll give it my best shot – and then we’ll see what happens", said Tatjana Huefner with her usual reticence. And true to this motto she collected, in the past years, one Olympic victory, three World Championship titles and four overall Viessmann Luge World Cup wins. And last but not least her 28 individual victories, earning her a third place on the list of record winners behind Germany’s two-time Olympic champion Sylke Otto (37 individual victories) and Kraushaar-Pielach (36).
Linger brothers still lack overall Viessmann Luge World Cup victory
While Huefner and Zoeggeler collected overall Viessmann Luge World Cup victories as others might stamps, the two Linger brothers Andreas and Wolfgang of Austria hope to win this one title still missing in their collection. "Especially the overall World Cup is very important for us", said Wolfgang. Andreas and Wolfgang claimed two Olympic victories, two World Championship titles and became 2010 European champions. But… they failed to achieve an overall World Cup victory. "We need to see how the season unfolds", explained Andreas Linger.
The situation in the doubles‘ has hardly changed prior to the new winter. The strongest opponents of the Linger brothers are - as in the past 2010-2011 season - Germany’s Tobias Wendl-Tobias Arlt, who have one overall World Cup victory to their credit but failed to win a medal at the Worlds, as well as Christian Oberstolz-Patrick Gruber of Italy, the World runnersup. However, there is a question mark behind the possible performance of Latvia’s Sics brothers Andris and Juris (2010 Olympic silver and 2011 World bronze medallists) following a car accident of Juris in summer. In addition it remains to be seen if the Russian doubles’, headed by World fourth-placed Vladislav Yuzhakov-Vladimir Makhnutin, will be able to maintain their upward trend.
Press conference of the Austrian Luge Federation, ÖRV
Innsbruck-Igls (pps) Prior to the season’s opener of the Viessmann Luge World Cup series on the 1964 and 1976 Olympic luge track in Innsbruck-Igls, Austria’s Luge Federation, ÖRV, invites all interested media representatives to a press conference at the "Olympia Golf Café" (Badhausstraße 60b in 6080 Igls). Available for questions will be Sports Director Markus Prock as well as Austria’s national luge team.
Subsequently, the Organising Committee of 2012 Youth Olympic Games in Innsbruck will inform on the current state of preparations seven weeks ahead of the Opening Ceremony.
Hosts USA dominate first junior World Cup event celebrating two victories
Park City (pps) The season’s first junior World Cup event in Park City in the US state of Utah was all about the success of the hosts’ team. The special junior training programme of the US luge federation USLA paid off as Emily Sweeney celebrated a victory in the women’s singles and Jacob Hyrns-Andrew Sherk were successful in the doubles’. Germany’s Chris Eissler won the men’s singles.
Emily Sweeney, who competed at the 2010 Olympic Winter Games in Vancouver, defeated team-mate and former junior World champion Kate Hansen to second place with a lead of 0.013 seconds. Katrin Rudolph of Germany took third place.
In the doubles‘, the defending overall junior World Cup champions Hyrns-Sherk defeated Germany’s Robin Geuke-David Gamm as well as Andrey Bogdanov-Andrey Medvedev of Russia. Chris Eissler finished on top of the podium in the junior men’s singles, followed by Italy’s Emanuel Rieder and his team-mate Florian Berkes on second and third place respectively.
Linger-Linger with a new sponsor
Innsbruck-Igls (pps) For Andreas and Wolfgang Linger, their numerous victories are paying off – in the truest sense of the word. The current World doubles’ champions are heading into the new season with the assistance of a new main sponsor. With immediate effect, the "Tyrolean Assurances" (Tiroler Versicherungen) will support the two-time Olympic champions. "We have been searching intensively for a strong partner to back us up. And now we have taken the right decision", explained Andreas Linger prior to the first season’s event on their home-track in Igls.
For more information, contact: wolfgang.harder@t-online.de
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