From Umhausen, AUT
(February 08, 2025) – Florian Clara is a late bloomer when it comes to men’s singles, apparently. After nearly two decades of racing in singles luge, Clara won his first World Cup gold medal. And now he can’t stop winning.
Clara took his third straight victory, this time in come from behind fashion over world champion Michael Scheikl.
Shekl led by .14 over Clara after the first heat, with Clara’s longtime doubles partner Patrick Pigneter in third, just a hundredth behind Clara. In the second heat, Pigneter took the lead handily from Swiss slider Stefan Federer, but watched as teammate Clara put down a flying second heat to take the lead by .33 with only Sheikl to come.
Sheikl, who won the first two races of the season in Winterleiten, pulled another great start and had a sizeable lead early on. But the bottom part of his second effort wasn’t quite as clean as Clara’s, and he bled time from the penultimate split down, eventually finishing .05 behind Clara for silver, with the Italian taking gold.
Clara’s win put him on the podium for the fourth time in five races this season. Afterward, he thanked mother nature for the victory.
“I wasn’t happy after the training runs and was hoping for slightly warmer temperatures,” Clara told FIL media. “Today it was warmer, and that’s when my equipment works particularly well.”
Behind Clara and Sheikl, Pigneter took bronze for his second straight medal after a slow start to the season. Federer was once again near the podium but just off in fourth, while Fabian Brunner rounded out the top five.
With two races to go in the 2024/2025 season, Clara leads Sheikl by 20 points, with Italy’s Alex Oberhofer back in third, 98 points out of the lead.
Results:
| Pos | Name | Nation | Bib | Start 1 | Start 2 | Run 1 | Run 2 | Total |
| 1 | Florian Clara | ITA | 27 | 11.60 | 11.62 | 73.06 | 73.19 | 2:26.25 |
| 2 | Michael Scheikl | AUT | 26 | 11.48 | 11.49 | 72.92 | 73.38 | 2:26.30 |
| 3 | Patrick Pigneter | ITA | 19 | 11.64 | 11.77 | 73.07 | 73.51 | 2:26.58 |
| 4 | Sefan Federer | SUI | 22 | 11.56 | 11.64 | 73.41 | 73.91 | 2:27.32 |
| 5 | Fabian Brunner | ITA | 24 | 11.68 | 11.69 | 73.92 | 73.99 | 2:27.91 |
| 6 | Alex Oberhofer | ITA | 25 | 11.74 | 1.70 | 73.94 | 74.01 | 2:27.95 |
| 7 | Fabian Achenrainer | AUT | 23 | 11.65 | 11.81 | 74.08 | 74.50 | 2:28.58 |
| 8 | Florian Markt | AUT | 8 | 11.62 | 11.77 | 74.21 | 74.74 | 2:28.95 |
| 9 | Sebastian Feldhammer | AUT | 17 | 11.73 | 11.76 | 74.47 | 75.62 | 2:30.09 |
| 10 | Ziga Kralj | SLO | 21 | 11.90 | 11.76 | 75.18 | 74.96 | 2:30.14 |
| 11 | Vid Kralj | SLO | 18 | 11.84 | 11.79 | 75.08 | 75.10 | 2:30.18 |
| 12 | Gabriel Halcin | SVK | 12 | 11.84 | 11.86 | 76.19 | 75.47 | 2:31.66 |
| 13 | Vincent Streit | GER | 9 | 11.87 | 12.03 | 76.06 | 76.03 | 2:32.09 |
| 14 | Samuel Halcin | SVK | 16 | 11.79 | 11.72 | 77.39 | 76.41 | 2:33.80 |
| 15 | Jerome Almer | SUI | 14 | 11.94 | 12.24 | 76.47 | 77.60 | 2:34.07 |
| 16 | Mason Palecek | USA | 4 | 12.27 | 12.07 | 78.07 | 76.62 | 2:34.69 |
| 17 | Thomas Matthews | USA | 2 | 12.26 | 12.40 | 77.12 | 77.67 | 2:34.79 |
| 18 | Peter Neupauer | SVK | 15 | 12.06 | 11.99 | 77.32 | 77.61 | 2:34.93 |
| 19 | Coskun Ercoskun | FIN | 11 | 12.28 | 12.19 | 77.66 | 78.07 | 2:35.73 |
| 20 | David Rydl | CZE | 5 | 12.17 | 12.17 | 78.97 | 79.20 | 2:38.17 |
| 21 | Leonard Pizziola | USA | 6 | 12.27 | 12.36 | 79.07 | 79.15 | 2:38.22 |
| 22 | Dominik Neupauer | SVK | 7 | 12.26 | 12.18 | 79.37 | 78.89 | 2:38.26 |
| 23 | Shohei Tanaka | SUI | 3 | 13.37 | 13.17 | 84.99 | 83.95 | 2:48.94 |
| 24 | Daniel Gruber | ITA | 20 | 11.64 | 74.26 | |||
| 25 | Hannes Unterholzner | ITA | 1 | 11.63 | 74.46 | |||
| 26 | Florian Freigassner | AUT | 13 | 11.75 | 74.49 | |||
| 27 | Leon Auer | AUT | 10 | 11.77 | 74.87 |