Austria dominates Germany
World Cup dress rehearsal goes wrong for toboggan stars
January 14, 2024, 2:37 p.m
The World Cup dress rehearsal goes terribly wrong: the German tobogganers have another sobering weekend in Igls. Even Max Langenhan’s winning streak came to an end shortly before the peak of the season. The new dominator then becomes extremely self-critical.
Max Langenhan got out of the ice channel, smiled painfully and gave a thumbs down. The best luger in the world at the moment was his own toughest critic after the World Cup dress rehearsal was a complete failure. “I’m super dissatisfied. I just delivered a really bad race. That disappoints all the trainers who have been working on it all year long,” said the new dominator disappointedly. There wasn’t much to gain for Langenhan and Co. in Igls. National coach Norbert Loch’s protégés were only able to partially capture the momentum they had hoped for for the home World Cup in Altenberg. Instead, Langenhan lost his European title.
The Austrian Jonas Müller took it from him, and Langenhan was left with bronze as a consolation prize. “In the end, it’s all about achieving your best performance, which I didn’t manage to do either at the start or in the track. Then it’s simply deserved to be behind at the finish.” With his third place, Langenhan was still the best German, the former leader Felix Loch, who had hoped before the European Championships to be able to “really give the Austrians a run for their money”, had no chance in eighth place in the race for the European Championship medals.
“Let’s see how it turns out”
The Austrian dominance began on Saturday at the races in Innsbruck-Igls, which were the World Cup and European Championships in one. The titles in the women’s singles and men’s doubles went to Austria. Julia Taubitz in the single sled and the long-time Olympic champions Tobias Wendl/Tobias Arlt in the double sled each won silver. Anna Berreiter took bronze.
Only Jessica Degenhardt and Cheyenne Rosenthal secured German gold. The two benefited from a mistake by the competition. The Austrians Selina Egle/Lara Michaela Kipp, who were in the lead, were the last team to make a serious driving error that cost them their victory. Unlike last season, when the Austrians won all eight home races in Igls, the German team at least broke through their total dominance.
The dress rehearsal before the World Cup in Altenberg (January 26th to 28th) still went wrong, but Loch is relying on home advantage for himself and his compatriots at the highlight of the season. “In two weeks we’ll be on a German railway, we know our way around quite well. Let’s see how it turns out.”