Italy Upsets Germany in FIL Team Relay

From Igls, AUT

Nov. 24, 2019 – Coming into the opening FIL Team Relay, Germany had won 37 of 54 relay events. Italy had won five.

Make it six now for Italy.

Italy put together a great race, with Andrea Vötter, Dominik Fischnaller, and the team of Nagler & Malleier all with clean and quick runs down what would be considered their home track. Neither Austria nor Russia could answer, with Austria finishing .025 behind the Italians and Russia struggling throughout their run.

That left Germany as the lone team in the way of an Italian gold medal.

Julia Taubitz set a blistering pace for the women, opening up a .248 advantage over Vötter. Felix Loch was next, but had trouble on the exit of Curve 9, setting the Germans back by under a tenth.

The almost always unshakable team of Eggert & Benecken just needed a clean run to give Germany their 38th relay gold medal, but they too had trouble out of Curve 9, and never could make up the time lost, giving Italy the gold medal.

Austria looked like they were going to be on the outside looking in at the podium until both Russia and Germany had trouble. In turn, they scored a silver medal on home ice, while Germany settled for bronze.

Canada finished fourth on the strength of a great doubles run by Tristan Walker & Justin Snith, while Latvia finished fifth.

Tucker West had a small mistake on his run going into Curve 9 to put the United States behind. Mazdzer & Terdiman couldn’t make up any ground on the teams ahead of them, with the Americans settling for sixth.

China had what appeared to be a good run going in their first team relay, but the doubles team of Huang & Peng crashed late in their run to give them a DNF.

The next Team Relay event will be in Race 4 in January at Altenberg.

Results: