From Kühtai, AUT
(December 17, 2023) – It’s a new season on the FIL World Cup on Natural Track, but some things just don’t change. One of those things that hasn’t changed is Evelin Lanthaler putting down dominating performances on her way to gold.
Lanthaler had a half-second advantage over Austria’s Riccarda Ruetz, back from injury suffered last season. Ruetz’s teammate, Tina Unterberger sat in third, a full second behind the leader.
In the second heat Unterberger put down a strong second run to move into the lead ahead of Italy’s Daniela Mittermair, who had moved up one spot.
Riccarda Ruetz’s second effort was a half of a second slower than her first, and a quarter second slower than Unterberger’s but her combined time was more than enough to slide into the lead with Lanthaler to go.
Lanthaler’s second start was the fastest of the heat, and while her second run wasn’t quite as quick as her first, it was still faster than anyone else had put down that day and more than enough to take gold.
The final margin of victory was 1.26 seconds over Ruetz, with Unterberger .27 behind her Austrian teammate. Lanthaler’s combined 1:50.18 would have been good enough for eighth in the men’s race.
Mittermaier finished fourth, a full second ahead of Tina Stuffer, who had big issues in her second run.
Stuffer did hold on for fifth, .07 ahead of Germany’s Lisa Walch in sixth.
Canada’s Nadja Loder finished 11th.
Results:
| Pos | Name | Nation | Bib | Start 1 | Start 2 | Run 1 | Run 2 | Total |
| 1 | Evelin Lanthaler | ITA | 15 | 6.47 | 6.47 | 54.89 | 55.29 | 1:50.18 |
| 2 | Riccarda Ruetz | AUT | 9 | 6.45 | 6.47 | 55.42 | 56.02 | 1:51.44 |
| 3 | Tina Unterberger | AUT | 14 | 6.60 | 6.64 | 55.97 | 55.74 | 1:51.71 |
| 4 | Daniela Mittermair | ITA | 11 | 6.61 | 6.52 | 56.22 | 55.96 | 1:52.18 |
| 5 | Tina Stuffer | ITA | 7 | 6.44 | 6.50 | 56.15 | 57.20 | 1:53.35 |
| 6 | Lisa Walch | GER | 12 | 6.52 | 6.53 | 56.57 | 56.85 | 1:53.42 |
| 7 | Jenny Castiglioni | ITA | 8 | 6.64 | 6.67 | 56.60 | 56.83 | 1:53.43 |
| 8 | Naomi Thöni | AUT | 4 | 6.72 | 6.78 | 57.17 | 58.36 | 1:55.13 |
| 9 | Hannah Nagele | AUT | 5 | 6.83 | 6.96 | 58.30 | 58.27 | 1:56.57 |
| 10 | Patricija Urbanc | CRO | 10 | 7.16 | 7.20 | 62.41 | 61.87 | 2:04.28 |
| 11 | Nadja Loder | CAN | 7 | 6.86 | 6.84 | 64.65 | 64.99 | 2:09.64 |
| 12 | Lea Krissakova | SVK | 1 | 7.18 | 7.24 | 73.58 | 69.96 | 2:23.54 |
| 13 | Natalia Dudaskova | SVK | 2 | 7.05 | 7.15 | 99.29 | 69.34 | 2:48.63 |
