From Laas, Italy
(February 13, 2022) – Italy’s Alex Gruber held off a charge by Michael Scheikl to win gold in the 2022 FIL European Championships for Natural Track Luge.
Gruber set the quick time in the first heat to open up a .22 second advantage over the Austrian, with the two sliders well ahead of anyone else.
On his second run Scheikl easily slid into the lead, .75 ahead of Patrick Pigneter in third place. While Gruber wasn’t quite able to match Scheikl’s pace on the second run, he did have enough in the bank to hold onto gold by just .07.
Patrick Pigneter won bronze, heading up the best of the rest. He finished his race .82 back behind Gruber, but .11 ahead of doubles teammate Florian Clara to solidify his spot in third.
Clara finished fourth, just ahead of World Cup point leader Thomas Kammerlander in fifth. Italy put all four of their men in the top six, with Mathias Troger in sixth.
Results:
| Pos | Name | Nation | Bib | Start 1 | Start 2 | Run 1 | Run 2 | Total |
| 1 | Alex Gruber | ITA | 30 | 16.12 | 16.13 | 61.69 | 61.96 | 2:03.65 |
| 2 | Michael Scheilk | AUT | 31 | 16.12 | 16.04 | 61.91 | 61.81 | 2:03.72 |
| 3 | Patrick Pigneter | ITA | 33 | 16.50 | 16.24 | 62.32 | 62.15 | 2:04.47 |
| 4 | Florian Clara | ITA | 32 | 16.25 | 16.14 | 62.27 | 62.31 | 2:04.58 |
| 5 | Thomas Kammerlander | AUT | 28 | 16.26 | 16.23 | 62.44 | 62.21 | 2:04.65 |
| 6 | Mathias Troger | ITA | 25 | 16.41 | 16.25 | 62.57 | 62.29 | 2:04.86 |
| 7 | Aleksandr Egorov | RUS | 29 | 16.38 | 16.43 | 62.54 | 62.40 | 2:04.94 |
| 8 | Grigory Bukin | RUS | 21 | 16.09 | 16.35 | 62.44 | 62.76 | 2:05.20 |
| 9 | Fabian Achenrainer | AUT | 34 | 16.54 | 16.40 | 63.09 | 63.05 | 2:06.14 |
| 10 | Iurii Talykh | RUS | 15 | 16.55 | 16.49 | 63.08 | 63.13 | 2:06.21 |
| 11 | Stanislav Kovshik | RUS | 7 | 16.52 | 16.54 | 63.08 | 63.21 | 2:06.29 |
| 12 | Florian Markt | AUT | 24 | 16.66 | 16.57 | 63.28 | 63.75 | 2:07.03 |
| 13 | Oliver Schiller | GER | 22 | 16.87 | 16.80 | 64.62 | 64.48 | 2:09.10 |
| 14 | Blaz Mekina | SLO | 5 | 16.81 | 17.15 | 64.93 | 64.81 | 2:09.74 |
| 15 | Simon Dietz | GER | 1 | 16.83 | 16.78 | 65.65 | 64.49 | 2:10.14 |
| 16 | Bine Mekina | SLO | 3 | 17.07 | 16.95 | 65.02 | 65.30 | 2:10.32 |
| 17 | Myroslav Lenko | UKR | 26 | 16.88 | 17.13 | 65.23 | 65.25 | 2:10.48 |
| 18 | Vid Kralj | SLO | 12 | 17.08 | 16.96 | 65.86 | 65.13 | 2:10.99 |
| 19 | Leonardo de Oliveira Silva | BRA | 27 | 16.92 | 17.21 | 65.45 | 65.70 | 2:11.15 |
| 20 | Matevz Vertelj | SLO | 9 | 17.02 | 17.02 | 65.65 | 65.53 | 2:11.18 |
| 21 | Jerome Almer | SUI | 16 | 17.92 | 17.57 | 67.02 | 66.00 | 2:13.02 |
| 22 | Ivan Lenko | UKR | 19 | 17.38 | 17.43 | 67.21 | 66.49 | 2:13.70 |
| 23 | Tomas Hasek | CZE | 11 | 18.19 | 17.84 | 67.89 | 66.95 | 2:14.84 |
| 24 | Julio Dante de Moraes | BRA | 18 | 17.69 | 17.75 | 68.13 | 68.10 | 2:16.23 |
| 25 | David Rydl | CZE | 4 | 18.54 | 18.04 | 69.52 | 68.37 | 2:17.89 |
| 26 | Luka Novakovic | SRB | 17 | 18.41 | 18.43 | 69.17 | 68.80 | 2:17.97 |
| 27 | Adrian Machnik | POL | 2 | 18.18 | 18.24 | 69.58 | 68.89 | 2:18.47 |
| 28 | Nikola Ignjatov | SRB | 6 | 18.46 | 18.32 | 70.59 | 68.90 | 2:19.49 |
| 29 | Mizuki Watanabe | BEL | 10 | 20.03 | 19.34 | 72.27 | 73.27 | 2:25.54 |
| 30 | Shohei Tanaka | BEL | 13 | 20.41 | 19.40 | 76.85 | 99.92 | 2:56.77 |
| DNS | Flyn Myles Coburn | NZL | 20 | DNS |
