Olympic luge champion Felix Loch (Berchtesgaden) has an unexpected competitor more in the fight for his historic third gold medal. The 28-year-old is in second place after the first of four races at the winter games in Pyeongchang.
22 hundredths of a second separate the hole from the leader David Gleirscher from Austria. The 23-year-old has never been on a World Cup podium in his career.
Third is a bit surprising Johannes Ludwig (Oberhof) with 0.112 seconds behind Gleirscher. This was followed by the Russian Roman Repilow (+0.124) in fourth place and Chris Mazdzer (+0.148) from the USA in fifth place. So far, only the German luge icon Georg Hackl has won three gold medals in the individual Olympic race.
After mistakes in the first run, two of the co-favorites are still lagging a little behind in the next few rounds. World champion Wolfgang Kindl (Austria) allowed himself a gang contact in the upper section and is only eleventh with a gap of three tenths of a second “The material has fitted, but now there are only three times full throttle”, Kindl told ZDF.
European champion Semen Pawlitschenko lost control of his sled several times, the Russian is in 24th place. with a gap of almost seven tenths of a second to the top.
Routine Andi Langenhan (Zella-Mehlis/+0.431) also made a mistake in the infamous curve nine, the 33-year-old finished the first round only on 18th position. I got my ass kicked,”he said,” But now let’s change the setup and see what else works.”