Olympia can come: The World Cup finale at the Königssee came to a triumphal ride for the skeletonis Jacqueline Lölling and Axel Jungk with a subsequent celebration.
“This evening I’ll be playing billiards with friends and drinking beer,”said Vice World Champion Jungk after an emotional explosion about his first victory on ARD. And Lölling grabbed her second crystal ball with a victory.
The world champion from Winterberg won her fourth race of the season in the Berchtesgadener Land and once again won the overall World Cup. For the winter games in Pyeongchang, South Korea, Lölling, who last year won the only World Cup so far on the Olympic track, is the big favourite. Despite her great self-confidence, she still wants to be careful, because “we don’t know what’s coming.”
Jungk also sent an exclamation mark with a view to the Olympics:”I can fly over with a broad chest,”said the 26-year-old from Oberbärenburg. At the same time, after his success, he remained on the familiar track:”You can’t afford to be dazzled by it. We don’t have the home advantage in Korea.”
For the first time I was in a situation where I was the last one to go down. Otherwise, I was often very fidgety, today it worked out well,”he said, confirming his assessment with the best start time. He thus prevailed over the Latvian brothers Martins and Tomass Dukurs. Christopher Grotheer from Oberhof finished fifth and Alexander Gassner from Winterberg finished sixth.
Because the Martin’s Dukurs, which had previously been second in the overall World Cup, will be used for the race in St. Gallen. Moritz was disqualified a week ago, Jungk moved up to second place in the overall ranking behind South Korean Yun Sungbin. Grotheer and Gassner finished the season in sixth and seventh place.
Lölling would have finished tenth in a victory for her Canadian rival Elisabeth Vathje. But after finishing fourth in the first round, she drove ahead with an excellent second run. Second place went to local heroine Tina Hermann, while Anna Fernstädt from Berchtesgaden dropped from first place to five.
The day had also not started well for Lölling. Due to heavy snowfall, the World Federation IBSF broke off the first run after about half of the starters and repeated the competition in the afternoon:”You have noticed it upstairs: It simply brakes, you can’t do anything about it,”said Lölling after her first attempt. Hermann added,”I can’t do it at all.”
In Pyeongchang, incidentally, the entire track is covered. So: Equal conditions for all.