Eitberger Sets Track Record in Sigulda Victory

From Sigulda, LAT

(January 7, 2023) – One day after a hard crash in training, Dajana Eitberger slid to gold in the women’s luge race in Sigulda.

Eitberger broke the track record on her first run, and while her second run wasn’t quite as quick it was still more than enough to hold off Latvia’s Elina Vitola on Vitola’s home track for gold.

The win for Eitberger came on her birthday, and was her second of the season and third straight medal. A day prior she’d crashed hard in the final run of training.

Behind Eitberger, Vitola entered the second heat in a tie with Germany’s Anna Berreiter, but out-slid the German to win silver.

Julia Taubitz moved up from fifth into the medals with the quickest run of the second heat, only .012 off of Eitberger’s record time, to win bronze.

Berreiter’s second run was the fourth quickest but still dropped her out of the medals into fourth, ahead of Latvia’s Sigita Berzina in fifth. Nation’s Cup winner Sandra Robatscher finished sixth for Italy.

Ashley Farquharson was the top American slider in tenth place as USA Luge put all four women in the top 20. Summer Britcher overcame a tough week of training and a skiddy first run to move up from 18th into a tie for 12th with Italy’s Verena Hofer. Brittney Arndt finished 14th, only .006 behind Britcher. Emily Sweeney entered the second heat in fourth, but had a big overcorrection in her second run and finished 17th.

For Canada, Trinity Ellis was the top slider in 16th place, up from 17th in her first run. Carolyn Maxwell finished 20th, while Caitlin Nash finished 22nd.

Madeleine Egle, contending for the World Cup overall title, had trouble in both of her runs including a crash in the second heat and finished 26th.

Halfway through the FIL World Cup overall calendar, Julia Taubitz holds a 38 point lead over teammate Dajana Eitberger. Madeleine Egle sits third after a disastrous race in Sigulda. Emily Sweeney, Anna Berreiter, and Andrea Vötter round out the top six.

Results:

Pos	Name	Nation	Bib	Start 1	Start 2	Run 1	Run 2	Total
1	Dajana Eitberger	GER	23	1.652	1.649	41.488	41.511	1:22.999
2	Elina Vitola	LAT	16	1.623	1.619	41.578	41.515	1:23.093
3	Julia Taubitz	GER	24	1.632	1.645	41.643	41.500	1:23.143
4	Anna Berreiter	GER	26	1.633	1.621	41.478	41.575	1:23.053
5	Sigita Berzina	LAT	14	1.636	1.625	41.690	41.628	1:23.318
6	Sandra Robatscher	ITA	17	1.643	1.627	41.726	41.640	1:23.366
7	Kendija Aparjode	LAT	15	1.668	1.666	41.825	41.700	1:23.525
8	Andrea Vötter	ITA	19	1.601	1.601	41.914	41.769	1:23.683
9	Natalie Maag	SUI	21	1.660	1.662	41.890	41.942	1:23.832
10	Ashley Farquharson	USA	12	1.676	1.664	42.011	41.861	1:23.872
11	Lisa Schulte	AUT	22	1.651	1.654	41.872	42.048	1:23.920
12	Verna Hofer	ITA	13	1.648	1.652	42.082	42.106	1:24.188
12	Summer Britcher	USA	18	1.637	1.639	42.169	42.019	1:24.188
14	Brittney Arndt	USA	20	1.684	1.684	42.071	42.123	1:24.194
15	Selina Egle	AUT	6	1.663	1.672	42.019	42.298	1:24.317
16	Trinity Ellis	CAN	5	1.681	1.666	42.141	42.188	1:24.329
17	Emily Sweeney	USA	25	1.621	1.621	41.639	42.793	1:24.432
18	Nina Zöggeler	ITA	11	1.659	1.668	42.035	42.431	1:24.466
19	Olena Stetskiv	UKR	8	1.660	1.667	42.238	42.329	1:24.567
20	Carolyn Maxwell	CAN	3	1.647	1.640	42.244	42.408	1:24.652
21	Tove Kohala	SWE	10	1.672	1.684	42.284	42.476	1:24.760
22	Caitlin Nash	CAN	9	1.685	1.731	42.414	42.360	1:24.774
23	Klaudia Domaradzka	POL	7	1.694	1.692	42.866	42.662	1:25.528
24	Adikeyoumu Gulijienaiti	CHN	1	1.714	1.714	43.345	43.615	1:26.960
25	Elsa Desmond	IRL	2	1.768	1.727	43.509	43.868	1:27.377
26	Madeleine Egle	AUT	27	1.615	1.616	42.808	48.015	1:30.823
DSQ	Peixuan Wang	CHN	4	1.703		42.945	DSQ