Ivan Nagler and Fabian Malleier narrowly missed the podium. © ANSA / FILIP SINGER

A split second decides podium thriller – UPDATE

At the World Cup final in Altenberg, Ivan Nagler and Fabian Malleier narrowly missed the podium. The South Tyroleans, however, completed a fantastic comeback. Shortly afterwards, the Olympic heroines also just missed out on a top-three finish.

March 07, 2026

From: never/fop

One week after their strong second-place finish on the natural ice of St. Moritz, luck was on the side of their competitors: On Saturday morning, Nagler and Malleier missed out on third place by just 25 thousandths of a second. Their impressive comeback thus went unrewarded. After the first run, the Italian duo was still in seventh place, but in the second run, Nagler and Malleier posted the fastest time in the field.

Austrians Thomas Steu and Wolfgang Kindl secured the victory with a time of 1:22.754 minutes. Juri Thomas Gatt and Riccardo Martin Schöpf clinched a one-two finish for the Austrian Luge Federation (+0,126 seconds). Toni Eggert and Florian Müller from Germany completed the podium (+0,150). Olympic champions Emanuel Rieder and Simon Kainzwaldner from South Tyrol finished in ninth place (+0,733).

Vötter/Oberhofer also finished in fourth place.

Another decision was made in Altenberg on Saturday, namely the women's doubles competition. Olympic champions Andrea Vötter and Marion Oberhofer finished in fourth place. They were already at the foot of the podium after the first run, but couldn't manage to break into the top three.

Vötter and Oberhofer finished the race 0,342 seconds behind the victorious Austrians Selina Egle and Lara Michaela Kipp. Kipp prevailed over the Germans Dajana Eitberger and Magdalena Matschina (+0,151 seconds) and the Latvian duo Marta Robezniece and Kitija Bogdanova (+0,282).

Dominik Fischnaller is on course for a podium finish. © ANSA / FILIP SINGER

The men and women also completed the first run of the singles races on Saturday afternoon. Dominik Fischnaller is currently in a very promising position, just 0,242 seconds behind the leader, Felix Loch. Leon Felderer is in fifth place, while Alex Gufler is in 16th place halfway through the race.

In the women's race, Latvian Kendija Apajode leads by a razor-thin margin at the halfway point (Merle Fräbel from Germany, Verena Hofer and Sandra Robatscher are in tenth and fifteenth place respectively).

The winner will be determined on Sunday for both the men (10:35 am) and women (11:47 am).