The German lugers made history at the World Cup in Altenberg with historic comebacks. After World Champion Max Langenhan from BRC 05 Friedrichroda raced from 21st place after the first run to victory on Saturday, World Championship silver medallist Julia Taubitz topped this result once again on Sunday. The athlete from Oberwiesenthal achieved the unique feat of racing from 22nd place all the way to the top. She relegated Latvia's Elina Ieva Vitola to second place with a lead of 0.149 seconds. Third place went to world champion Lisa Schulte from Austria, who was 0.297 seconds behind Taubitz.
"The plan was actually to be in the front midfield after the first run, but that didn't quite work out. I made a few mistakes, which came in handy in the end," said Taubitz, who extended her lead in the overall standings with her 24th World Cup victory. "It was just a weather race. You're not quite as happy about a victory as you would be in perfect weather." Anna Berreiter finished fourth, while Melina Fischer in sixth and Merle Fraebel in seventh also managed top ten places.
The day before, Langenhan had triumphed in a similar fashion to Taubitz. Neither of them had good first runs with start number 27. "I was just lucky. Mistakes like that actually deserve a defeat. The fact that I then hit a second run like that and the track then deteriorates like that is something you wouldn't wish on any other athlete. I'm sorry about that too," said Langenhan. Three-time Olympic champion Felix Loch from RC Berchtesgaden missed out on his 51st World Cup victory in fourth place after being in a promising second place at half-time.
Colleague Loch had already achieved a similar feat to Taubitz and Langenhan: in December 2020, the athlete from Berchtesgaden also raced to victory from 17th place on the Altenberg track.
Copyright 2024, dpa (www.dpa.de). All rights reserved
