Luger Fräbel wins her first major title
rennrods Merle Fräbel won her first major title. The 22-year-old became European champion on her home track in Oberhof. Fräbel prevailed ahead of the Austrian Lisa Schulte and the Swiss Natalie Maag. “To be European champion now is great. Now I can write something new on the autograph card again,” said Fräbel on ZDF. Record world champion felix Loch, though, narrowly missed out on his fourth European Championship title in the single-seater. The 36-year-old from Berchtesgaden came second, 0.091 seconds behind the new European champion Jonas Müller from Austria.
Fifth European Championship gold for Wendl/Arlt
The record Olympian Tobias Wendl and Tobias Arlt became European champions for the fifth time. The two 38-year-old lugers from Bavaria won their first European Championship title since 2019 ahead of Toni Eggert and Florian Müller. The World Cup third-place finishers confidently prevailed in the title fights, which were also held as a World Cup. “Unimaginable. I’m at a loss for words,” says Tobias Wendl on ZDF. The six-time Olympic champions also extended their lead in the overall doubles ranking with their 59th World Cup victory.The reigning world champions Hannes Orlamünder and Paul Gubitz, who did not qualify for the Olympics, achieved their best result of the season in fourth place. the duo was three thousandths of a second behind the third-placed Austrians Juri Gatt and Riccardo Schöpf.
The women have jessica Degenhardt and Cheyenne Rosenthal also won the European Championship title in the doubles in Oberhof, and with a track record.At the upcoming Olympic premiere in women’s doubles, only one sled per nation is allowed to start. Degenhardt, 23, and Rosenthal, 25, lost out in the national qualification to Dajana Eitberger, 35, and Magdalena Matschina, 20, who came third in Oberhof.
Karl Geiger misses the Olympics
Ski jumper Karl Geiger missed qualifying for the Winter Olympics. The 32-year-old achieved his best result of the season to date with 14th place in Sapporo.In order to meet the internal German standard, the Oberstdorfer would have had to finish at least eighth. The slovenian Four Hills Tournament winner Domen Prevc secured victory in Japan. He won ahead of local hero Ryoyu Kobayashi and the Austrian Daniel Tschofenig. Philipp Raimund took ninth place as the best German. Felix Hoffmann, Andreas wellinger and Pius Paschke forego the competitions at the site of the 1972 Winter Games.
The disqualification of the Austrian Stefan Kraft also attracted attention. The three-time overall World Cup winner was taken out of the competition during qualification because of a jump suit that did not conform to the rules. “It went a bit stupidly,” said Austria’s head coach Andreas widhölzl from the news agency WHAT quoted. The team assumed that everything was fine with the suit last used in the summer. “It can happen, but it shouldn’t happen,” said Widhölzl. “It taught us that we need to take a closer look at it.”
Overall World Cup for lochner and Nolte
Johannes Lochner confidently won the last World Cup duel in the two-man bobsleigh against Francesco Friedrich. The Berchtesgadener took a total of 0.51 seconds off his long-time rival on his home track in altenberg in two runs – and confidently secured overall victory in the two-man bobsleigh World Cup. Meanwhile,has Laura Nolte completed the double in the overall World Cup. After her success in the monobob, the 27-year-old from Winterberg also won the big crystal ball in the two-man bobsleigh. With pusher Deborah Levi, the Olympic champion won in 5.50 and 55.96 seconds respectively thanks to the start and track record.
Armbruster with two podium places after disqualification
The one disqualified last weekend Nathalie Armbruster made a strong comeback in nordic combined. The 20-year-old followed up her second place from the previous day with another podium finish at the home game in Oberhof. On Sunday, Armbruster only had to admit defeat in third place to the Norwegian long-time winner Ida Marie Hagen and the second-placed Finn Minja Korhonen.For Hagen it was the 25th victory in the individual World Cup. no combiner has managed this more often.After ski jumping, Armbruster was in fourth place. In the decisive cross-country skiing race over five kilometers, the Black Forest native showed off her running strength. “Hats off to Nathalie. She did it tactically cleverly,” said national coach Florian Aichinger on ZDF.
The day before,Armbruster had reported a hard experience with tears in his eyes. “The end of last weekend wasn’t easy for me.It cost me a lot of energy,” she said. Last weekend, the overall World Cup winner was taken out of the ski jumping competition in Otepää, Estonia, because her suit did not comply with the rules. Your second place on Saturday now had a special importance. “It was so, so important – especially after last Sunday.I would have so much to say, but I think I have to wait a little bit before I can tell the truth,” Armbruster said. The men cared Julian Schmid on Sunday in third place, also for a podium finish. “It was a super exciting race with a lot of ups and downs. it was a clever race from Julian, Chapeau,” said national coach Eric Frenzel after the first competitions in Oberhof in 16 years. After a decent jump of 95.0 meters, Schmid went into the cross-country ski run from 14th place, showed a strong recovery and won the sprint for third place against Johannes Lamparter from Austria on the home straight.
