Toboggan Olympic champion Felix Loch won two weeks before the Olympic Winter Games in Pyeongchang (9. till 25. February) missed his third individual title at the European Championships. The Berchtesgadener finished second at the European Championships in the final World Cup weekend in Sigulda, Latvia, only eleven thousandths of a second behind the Russian Semen Pavlichenko.
Second-best German in the World Cup ranking behind third Roman Repilov (Russia) was Johannes Ludwig (Oberhof) in eighth place. Ralf Palik (Oberwiesenthal) and Andi Langenhan (Zella-Mehlis), the third Olympic starter behind Loch and Ludwig, only finished 14th and 16th.
On Saturday, Loch’s team mate Natalie Geisenberger (Miesbach) was also behind a Russian. The European Championship was won by Tatjana Ivanova, who was controversial due to the Russian doping scandal. World champion Tatjana Huefner (Blankenburg) crashed after a driving mistake in the first run.
The world champions Toni Eggert and Sascha Benecken won their third European Championship singles title and impressively underscored their favorite role for Pyeongchang. The duo from Thuringia (Ilsenburg/Suhl) also prematurely secured their third victory in the overall World Cup.
After the sprint races the team relay (13.50 o’ clock) is the last race of the World Cup winter.