Austria Wins Home Relay in Igls

From Igls, AUT

(January 14, 2024) – On a weekend where Austria won gold in three of the four races leading up to Sunday’s team relay, and once again they flexed their muscles on their home track with a fourth gold medal.

After two disappointing relays earlier in the season, including one with a DNF, Italy and Latvia both went off earlier than usual in the event, with Latvia third and Italy fourth. Latvia took the lead from the third starting spot, but was immediately picked off by Italy on the strength of doubles efforts of Emanuel Rieder and Simon Kainzwaldner and Andrea Vötter and Marion Oberhofer.

The Italians held the lead after runs by Ukraine, Poland, and the United States, with only the United States challenging for the lead.

Finally it was Austria’s turn. Madeleine Egle set the quick run of all of the women’s athletes, Thomas Steu and Wolfgang Kingl, and Selina Egle and Lara Kipp had smooth runs, while Jonas Müller matched his outstanding pace earlier in the day to solidify the lead for Austria.

The final team down was Germany. Julia Taubitz was outmatched just slightly by Egle, but Tobias Wendl and Tobias Arlt briefly gave Germany the lead. Max Langenhan, who earlier in the day had his ten race winning streak snapped by Müller once again couldn’t quite pace with the Austrians, and Jessica Degenhardt and Cheyenne Rosenthal made it a race but couldn’t quite match their Austrian counterparts as the Germans finished second, with Italy third.

The gold for Austria was the sixth in team history in the relay.

The United States saw Ashley Farquharson give them a lead early in their run, and while Dana Kellogg and Frank Ike, Jonny Gustafson, and the duo of Chevonne Forgan and Sophie Kirkby all had clean slides, they didn’t quite have the pace to get into the medals and finished fourth.

Latvia’s Kristers Aparjods put down a big slide to keep the nation in the race, but combined Latvia also did not have the pace and finished fifth.

After three team relay events in the FIL World Cup, Germany leads Austria by 15 points, with the United States in third, 70 points behind Austria. Poland and Ukraine round out the top five, with Italy up to sixth and Latvia seventh.

Results: