After 20 months of construction and costs of almost 30 million euros, the converted World Cup bobsleigh and toboggan run in Innsbruck/Igls has not yet received approval.
As the Austrian Toboggan Association (ÖRV) announced, test drives had to be carried out due to “The journey can be stopped prematurely due to technical problems”. From November 28th to 30th, the German defending champion in the two-man bobsleigh, Johannes Lochner, will race through the Olympic ice track at the World Cup. “Turn 13 to exit 14 turned out to be a weak point”ÖRV head coach Christian Eigentler is quoted in the statement: “Now there are still a few days left, of course we hope that the homologation will work.”
According to the association, the next official acceptance is planned for the period from November 14th to 16th. During the construction work on the ice track, the lower third of the track was redesigned, the run-out was extended and a new women’s start was built.
“You shouldn’t forget that we did the few test drives from the old women’s start, where we’re missing 30 km/h. If we drive from our usual starting altitude, that would simply be too dangerous as of today.”explained the Austrian Olympic luge champion David Gleirscher.
The Skeleton and Bobsleigh World Cup in Tyrol are on the program from November 28th to 30th, and the toboggan competitions on December 6th and 7th.