Olympia: A German gold thriller is on the horizon in tobogganing | EUROtoday

Germany additionally has the very best likelihood of successful gold within the second toboggan race. World champion Julia Taubitz from WSC Oberwiesenthal and World Championship runner-up Merle Fräbel from RT Suhl fought an thrilling duel for first place within the first two rounds and have already distanced themselves from the remainder of the competitors earlier than the decisive races on Tuesday.

The solely 22-year-old Olympic debutant Fräbel, who additionally received the take a look at competitors on the newly constructed monitor, set a monitor document within the first run. But Taubitz countered within the second spherical, instantly improved the document and took first place. However, your lead over Fräbel is just a tiny 61 hundredths of a second.

Subscribe to WELTMeister Spotify, Apple Podcasts or immediately by way of RSS-Feed.

“I was a bit nervous in the first run, there were a few mistakes. But the second run was super awesome. I was in the flow. I was really able to enjoy that,” mentioned Taubitz, who’s wanting ahead to the following duel with Fräbel. Her German colleague was additionally glad. “Julia really hit it big. I struggled a bit with myself. It’s completely okay. I’m still there and there’s room at the back. Of course that gives us peace,” mentioned Fräbel.

We go into the 2 ultimate races on Tuesday with a snug lead in third place. Third-placed Latvian Elina Bota is already 0.434 seconds behind silver.

Co-favorites make a mistake

World Cup chief Lisa Schulte from Austria was even weaker and is already 0.678 seconds behind Taubitz in seventh place. In addition, two co-favorites, US pilot Summer Britcher and Latvian Kendija Aparjode, mentioned goodbye after they made a mega mistake at the beginning after they crashed into the gang.

Anna Berreiter from Berchtesgaden, who received Olympic silver as a debutant in Beijing 4 years in the past, was unable to complete within the prime six on the shortened course of 1,410 meters within the newly constructed Cortina Sliding Center.

But Taubitz particularly is aware of how shortly the Olympic dream can burst. Four years in the past in Beijing, she was the heavy favourite and set the very best time within the first run after which fell within the second run. The medals had been out of attain. With the very best time within the fourth run, she got here seventh. “It took me a long time to come to terms with this setback. Looking back, I am grateful for this experience,” mentioned the 29-year-old, who already has eight World Cup titles and 5 total World Cup victories in her sporting resume.

Fräbel, who received the Youth Games in Lausanne in 2020 and have become junior world champion 3 times in a row from 2023 to 2025, had not but gotten the correct Olympic feeling just lately. “The Olympic spirit is there, especially because you’re wearing the Team D uniform. But I personally don’t have that crazy Olympic feeling because everything feels so unreal and for me it currently feels like an extra course.”