FIL European Luge Championships 2008

The FIL European Luge Championships 2008 took place January 7-13, 2008 at the Cesana Pariol track in Cesana, Italy. The relay competition took the place of the team event that had been held at every European championship since 1988. This event had all teams start at the same part of the track (located at the women's singles/ men's doubles start house), then run down to the finish and tap on a relay marker to exchange from one slider on a team to the next (men's doubles to women's singles to men's singles) with the fastest time winning.

Time table
  • Practice dates for the events took place January 7-11 with event draws taking place on the 11th.
  • Opening ceremonies took place at 6 PM CET (17:00 UTC) on January 10.
  • To avoid direct sunlight, the events were conducted in the early morning both days.

Competitors

80 competitors from 15 nations competed at these championships. This included ten relay teams which took place on the 13th.

Men's singles

January 13, 2008 at 8 AM CET (07:00 UTC)

Medal Athlete Time
Gold  Armin Zöggeler (ITA) 1:44.341
Silver  Albert Demtschenko (RUS) + 0.341
Bronze  David Möller (GER) + 0.403
4th  Daniel Pfister (AUT) + 0.428
5th  Martin Abentung (AUT) + 0.474
6th  Felix Loch (GER) + 0.509
7th  Stefan Höhener (SUI) + 0.556
8th  Wilfried Huber (ITA) + 0.806
9th  Jan Eichhorn (GER) + 0.808
10th  Manuel Pfister (AUT) + 0.876

This was Zöggeler's second European championship in this event and fifth straight medal at the championships.

Women's singles

January 12, 2008 at 9 AM CET (08:00 UTC)

Medal Athlete Time
Gold  Natalie Geisenberger (GER) 1:35.364
Silver  Silke Kraushaar-Pielach (GER) +0.160
Bronze  Veronika Halder (AUT) +0.167
4th  Tatjana Hüfner (GER) + 0.176
5th  Nina Reithmayer (AUT) + 0.320
6th  Anke Wischnewski (GER) + 0.412
7th  Maija Tīruma (LAT) + 0.735
8th  Anna Orlova (LAT) + 0.779
9th  Liliya Ludan (UKR) + 1.019
10th  Alexandra Rodionova (RUS) + 1.037

Geisenberger won her first ever championship. The event was delayed one hour to heavy snowfall in the area. Hadler is the first non-German to medal in this event at the Winter Olympic, world, or European level since fellow Austrian Angelika Neuner won a bronze at the 1998 Winter Olympics.

Men's doubles

January 12, 2008 at 3 PM CET (14:00 UTC)

Medal Athlete Time
Gold  Italy (Christian Oberstolz, Patrick Gruber) 1:33.779
Silver  Austria (Andreas Linger, Wolfgang Linger) +0.159
Bronze  Italy (Gerhard Plankensteiner, Oswald Haselrieder) +0.183
 Germany (Patric Leitner, Alexander Resch)
5th  Germany (André Florschütz, Torsten Wustlich) +0.408
6th  Austria (Peter Penz, Georg Fischler) +0.591
7th  Latvia (Andris Šics, Juris Šics) +0.638
8th  Russia (Mihail Kuzmitch, Stanislav Mikheev) +0.896
9th  Germany (Marcel Lorenz, Christian Baude) +1.151
10th  Russia (Ivan Nevmerzhitski, Vladimir Prokhorov) +1.174

The tie for the bronze was the first in a Winter Olympic, world championship, or European championship event since they started timing luge in the 1/1000ths of a second following the tie between Italy and East Germany in the men's doubles event at the 1972 Winter Olympics in Sapporo. Oberstolz and Gruber won their first ever title, ending Leitner and Resch's four-time championships reign in this event.

Mixed team relay

January 13, 2008 at 12 PM CET (11:00 UTC)

Medal Athlete Time
Gold  Latvia (Mārtiņš Rubenis, Maija Tīruma, Andris Šics, Juris Šics) 2:40.863
Silver  Austria (Martin Abentung, Veronika Halder, Andreas Linger, Wolfgang Linger) + 0.008
Bronze  Italy (Armin Zöggeler, Sandra Gasparini, Gerhard Plankensteiner, Oswald Haselrieder) + 0.050

For the first time since the event debuted at the 1988 championships, Germany did not medal, finishing fourth.

Medal table
RankNationGoldSilverBronzeTotal
1 Italy (ITA)2024
2 Germany (GER)1124
3 Latvia (LAT)1001
4 Austria (AUT)0213
5 Russia (RUS)0101
Totals (5 entries)44513

References
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