Viessmann Luge World Cup - preview St. Moritz International luge elite is looking forward to World Cup in St. Moritz “It will be a terrific event” – “Neck-and-neck” race in the doubles St. Moritz (pps) Lugers from all over the world are looking forward to the upcoming Viessmann Luge World Cup event in the Swiss winter resort of St. Moritz, this weekend (January 28-29, 2012). “I’m really excited,” said Olympic and World Champion Felix Loch of Germany. “It’s not widely known but I’ve tackled the track in St. Moritz a lot of times and it suits me.” The reason for his numerous runs on the natural ice track in the Upper Engadin is the joint training group of German and Swiss lugers that is based in St. Moritz. Over the years, the renowned “Bobrun” hosted numerous events towards the end of the season. On these occasions, not only Swiss lugers such as Martina Kocher (seventh at the 2010 Olympics) and Gregory Carigiet competed but their German “neighbors” Loch, Tatjana Huefner and company as well. By the way, the German doubles team of Tobias Wendl and Tobias Arlt know the very famous ice canal by heart, too. “We have often competed in St. Moritz. It will be a terrific event,” promised Tobias Wendl. After six of nine stops in the series, Wendl-Arlt are currently on top of the Viessmann Luge World Cup rankings. Their leading margin, however, is wafer-thin. Only 15 points separate them from two-time Olympic and two-time World Champions Andreas and Wolfgang Linger of Austria. The doubles team of brothers from the Austrian Tyrol already competed at the 2000 World Championships 12 years ago and they remember some quite “informative and painful” runs. “But we are absolutely looking forward to St. Moritz,” said Andreas Linger. But Tobias Wendl counters: “We know how to tackle the track, too.” While Wendl-Arlt and Linger-Linger are engaged in a kind of “neck-and-neck” race for the overall victory in the doubles, Loch is taking great strides towards taking his first overall World Cup crown. Thanks to five victories in six competitions, the 22-year-old is 145 points ahead of compatriot David Moeller (440 points). “Let’s put it like this – the odds aren’t really stacked against me,” explained Loch with a twinkle in his eyes. Contrary to past years, the only “constant” in the women’s singles right now is the changing name of the respective winner. After Germany’s Tatjana Huefner (winner in Igls and Koenigssee) and Natalie Geisenberger (Whistler and Oberhof) as well as Canadian Alex Gough (Calgary), it was “local hero” Corinna Martini who took the podium’s top spot in Winterberg, Germany, thus celebrating her first career victory in the World Cup series. At the same time, Martini earned a berth to the upcoming 43rd FIL Luge World Championships (February 10-12, 2012) in Altenberg, Germany. + + + The only remaining natural ice track in the world Returns after a 12-year-long break St. Moritz (pps) The 2000 FIL Luge World Championships were carried out on the natural ice track in the tony winter resort of St. Moritz. Now, after a “break” of 12 years, the Viessmann Luge World Cup will return to Switzerland. For the seventh time after 1986, 1988, 1991, 1995, 1996 and 1999 the World Cup series stops again in the Upper Engadin of Switzerland. For the competitions in the women’s singles and doubles the middle start gate called “Montis Bolt” will be used. In the men’s singles it will be a separate gate above the bobsleigh start. It was specially built for the World Cup event this weekend. The “St. Moritz-Celerina Olympic Bobrun” started operation in 1904, making it the oldest ice track in the world. It is the only remaining natural ice track on which bobsleigh, skeleton and luge races are held. The course of the 1,722m long track between Badrutt’s Park in St. Moritz at an altitude of 1,852m and Celerina-Cresta at 1,738m, has changed very little in the last 100 years. And the same is true of its design: at the end of November every year, a crew from South Tyrol spends three weeks constructing the new ice track for the season, using 5,000 cubic meters of snow and 4,000 cubic meters of water. The only concessions to modified technology and today’s heavier sleds are a larger curve radius, some stone and wood reinforcement, particularly in the “Horseshoe” corner, as well as the extension of the out run. The historic “Bobrun” in St. Moritz has seen 22 World Championships (18 in bobsleigh, three in skeleton and one in luge), 15 European Championships (11 in bobsleigh and four in skeleton) and any number of World Cups in both disciplines. It also hosted the 1928 and 1948 Winter Olympic Games. Interestingly, the Games in 1928 were made unique by the fact that the bobsled races were carried out in five-man sleds for the first and only time. By 1932 in Lake Placid (USA), only four-man and, for the first time, two-man sleds were allowed. + + + Winterberg provides with the season’s best TV ratings Winterberg (pps) The Viessmann Luge World Cup in Winterberg (GER) generated the season’s best luge TV ratings. An average of 3.51 million spectators followed the quintuple success of the home nation’s athletes in the men’s singles on the country’s public TV station ARD. This translates into a market share of 24.1 percent. At the same time, the transmission made it to 10th place of the Top 10 list of ARD sports broadcasts on Saturday (January 21, 2012). About 3.69 million TV viewers watched the Team Relay Event on Sunday, which translates into a market share of 19.1 percent (seventh place on the ARD rankings). The TV ratings in the doubles (1.05 million spectators / 15.2 percent market share) and women’s singles (2.72 million viewers / 19.4 percent market share) were equally good. + + + Zoeggeler, Kneyb and two doubles are “The last of the Mohicans” St. Moritz (pps) Armin Zoeggeler of Italy, Russia’s Viktor Kneyb, the Austrian doubles team of brothers Andreas and Wolfgang Linger as well as Christian-Oberstolz-Patrick Gruber, Italy, will be starring in the role of “The last of the Mohicans” in St. Moritz. Already 12 years ago, these lugers competed in the 34th FIL Luge World Championships in the Upper Engadin. At the 2000 World Championships, Zoeggler won the silver medal ahead of Georg Hackl of Germany. World Champion was Hackl’s teammate Jens Mueller. Patrick Leitner-Alexander Resch earned the gold medal while Oberstolz-Gruber were fourth. The Linger brothers posted a 13th-place result, Kneyb was in 29th place. World Championship titles to Otto, Mueller and Leitner-Resch At the World Championships Sylke Otto, Barbara Niedernhuber and Sonja Wiedemann, all of Germany, made a clean sweep in the women’s singles. The World Championship doubles title went to Leitner-Resch. Their teammates Steffen Skel and Steffen Woeller won the silver medal ahead of the US team of Mark Grimmette and Brian Martin. The German quartet “Germany II”, (namely Hackl, Kraushaar, Skel-Woeller) earned the World Championship top spot on the podium ahead of “Germany I” (Mueller, Otto, Leitner-Resch) and Austria (Markus Prock, Angelika Neuner, Tobias Schiegl-Markus Schiegl). Last World Cup winners: Kraushaar, Prock and Leitner-Resch The winners of the last World Cup event in St. Moritz in the 1998-1999 season were: Silke Kraushaar (ahead of teammate Sylke Otto and Andrea Tagwerker of Austria) in the women’s singles, Austrian Markus Prock (ahead of compatriots Rainer Margreiter and Gerhard Gleirscher) in the men’s singles and the German doubles team Leitner-Resch (ahead of Grimmette-Martin and Schiegl-Schiegl). St. Moritz hosted six World Cup events St. Moritz (pps) For the seventh time in the history of the Viessmann Luge World Cup, St. Moritz will be host to the international luge elite. This Saturday (January 28), the World Cup will kick-off with the doubles event at 9:00 hours (local time), followed by the women’s singles at 11:30 hours. The competition concludes with the men’s singles on Sunday, January 29 (at 9:45 hours). Schedule Viessmann Luge World Cup – St. Moritz Friday, January 27 10:00 hrs Nations Cup Saturday, January 28 09:00 hrs Viessmann Luge World Cup – doubles 11:30 hrs Viessmann Luge World Cup – women’s singles Sunday, January 29 09:45 hrs Viessmann Luge World Cup – men’s singles Editing Office SID Sportmarketing & Communications Services Wolfgang Harder Windscheidstr. 6 D 10627 Berlin Tel.: (+49)173-6073352 Email: wolfgang.harder@t-online.de FIL-Office Rathausplatz 9 D-83471 Berchtesgaden Tel.: (+49)8652-66960 Email: office@fil-luge.org