The two-time luge world champions Jessica Degenhardt and Cheyenne Rosenthal secured their second World Cup victory of the season on their parade route in Winterberg.
As with their triumph at the start of the season, the duo won on the home track of Rosenthal ahead of the overall World Cup leaders Selina Egle and Lara Kipp – this time by exactly a tenth of a second.
Around a month before the start of the Winter Olympics, Dajana Eitberger and Magdalena Matschina (+0.369 seconds) completed the podium in third place. Behind them, Elisa Storch and Pauline Patz (+0.492) rounded off the good German result.
Thanks to their success in the sunny Sauerland, Degenhardt/Rosenthal preserved the small remaining hope of a starting place in the Olympic races in Cortina d’Ampezzo.
Only Eitberger and Matschina, who were the best German team up to the deadline this weekend as second in the overall World Cup, certainly have this. Whether the Bobsleigh and Sled Association (BSD) receives second place still depends on the other nations.
“We’re now waiting to see if we can maybe move up.”
Degenhardt/Rosenthal are in third place in the overall World Cup. “It’s tough. We’re now waiting to see if we can maybe slip up,” said Degenhardt on the ARD microphone: “If someone can slip up, we’re now in first place. That was important to us, that’s why this victory means even more.”
On Saturday, both Felix Loch and Julia Taubitz missed out on the top spot on the podium in the single-seater. Record world champion Loch underlined his ambitions for his fifth Olympic gold in Italy with second place. And world champion Taubitz also confirmed her improved form compared to the start of the season with her second place despite illness problems. In Winterberg it was only “75 percent,” explained Taubitz.
Before the toboggan team travels to Cortina, there are two World Cup stops in Oberhof on the program. The Olympic races begin with the men’s singles competition on February 7th.