Luge athlete Dajana Eitberger has taken the lead in the overall World Cup. A good three weeks after her victory in Park City, the 32-year-old from Ilmenau also won the single-seater race in Sigulda, Latvia.
The Olympic silver medalist from Pyongchang beat local hero Elina Vitola (0.094) on her birthday with a time of 1:22.999 minutes. Third in sunshine and minus twelve degrees was Julia Taubitz from Oberwiesenthal (0.144), fourth place went to Anna Berreiter from Berchtesgaden (0.154).
“I didn’t just give myself the birthday present here, of course I have to ride alone. But this time the gift came from a lot of people,” said Eitberger, who even improved the track record in the first round. In the overall standings, she is now one point ahead of Julia Taubitz. The 26-year-old was annoyed about one or the other mistake. “Now I’ll practice so I can get through here without making a mistake,” she said. The European Championships will take place on the artificial ice rink in Sigulda next weekend.
Eitberger switched to doubles after the World Cup
Last year, at the World Cup in Park City/USA, Eitberger gave the German women their first win of the winter and for the first time in two years stood on the top of the podium. Eitberger had not been nominated for the Winter Games in Beijing, after a fall and a compulsory Corona break, she ended the Olympic season prematurely.
The World Championships on her home track in Oberhof (January 27th to 29th) will be her last in singles, after which she will switch to doubles. The women’s doubles will be part of the Olympic program for the first time at the 2026 Winter Games in Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo.
Wendl/Arlt narrowly miss out on victory
Tobias Wendl (Berchtesgaden) and Tobias Arlt (Königssee), on the other hand, narrowly missed out on winning the World Cup. After a furious drive in the second round, the German two-seater duo had to admit defeat by the home duo Martins Bots/Robert Plume by 0.156 seconds. The Latvians, who had 1:22.642 minutes on the clock after two runs, improved the track record recently set by Wendl/Arlt by 0.054 seconds in the second run.
The overall World Cup leaders Toni Eggert (Ilsenburg) and Sascha Benecken (Suhl) finished fourth (0.501). The third German team with Hannes Orlamünder and Paul Gubitz (both RRC Zella-Mehlis) finished sixth (0.817).
