Marion Oberhofer (left) and Andrea Vötter stormed onto the podium again. © ANSA / HANNIBAL HANSCHKE

A crazy South Tyrolean toboggan day in Canada

While South Tyrol was sound asleep, the luge athletes were in action on the second World Cup stage in Whistler, Canada. The South Tyroleans caused a sensation there.

16 December 2023

From: det

Third race, second podium: Andrea Voetter and Marion Oberhofer are already going strong in this young season. The woman from Völser and the woman from Rodengo raced to third place in Whistler. In doing so, they repeated the result from a week ago, when they also achieved bronze in Lake Placid (USA). In the third race of the season – the Lake Placid sprint – Vötter/Oberhofer came fourth. The balance at the start is more than impressive.

In Whistler, the two South Tyroleans were in third place after the first round and were able to confirm this position in the decision. Vötter/Oberhofer only had to admit defeat to two German duos: Jessica Degenhardt/Cheyenne Rosenthal beat Dajana Eitberger/Saskia Schirmer by 3 seconds. The third-placed South Tyroleans were only 0,080 seconds short of victory.

Nailers/painters scrape past the podium

However, it was the male doubles that caused the biggest surprise Ivan Nailer and Fabian Malleier. They had to qualify for the race through the Nations Cup, but then achieved a sensational fourth place, missing the podium by just a tenth of a second. Victory in the doubles went to the Germans Tobias Wendl/Tobias Arlt, who prevailed ahead of Thomas Steu/Wolfgang Kindl (Austria/+0,078 seconds) and Hannes Orlamuender/Paul Constantin Gubitz (Germany/+0,105). The other South Tyrolean starters ended up a little further back: Emanuel Rieder/Simon Kainzwaldner came ninth, Ludwig Rieder/Lukas Gufler ended up in 16th place.

In the meantime, he only missed the podium by a whisker Dominik Filehner. The reigning overall World Cup winner from Meransen ended up in fourth place in the single-seater race, which he shares with the Austrian Nico Gleirscher. The competition was won by series winner Max Langenhan (Germany), who prevailed against Jonas Müller (Austria/+0,255 seconds) and Kristers Aparjods (Latvia/+0,479). Fischler was 0,709 seconds behind at the finish. Leon Felderer finished the race in 11th place, Alex Gufler ended up in 24th place.