FIL European Luge Championships 2008

The FIL European Luge Championships 2008 took place January 7-13, 2008 at the Cesana Pariol track in Cesana, Italy. The relay competition took the place of the team event that had been held at every European championship since 1988. This event had all teams start at the same part of the track (located at the women's singles/ men's doubles start house), then run down to the finish and tap on a relay marker to exchange from one slider on a team to the next (men's doubles to women's singles to men's singles) with the fastest time winning.

Time table

• Practice dates for the events took place January 7-11 with event draws taking place on the 11th.
• Opening ceremonies took place at 6 PM CET (17:00 UTC) on January 10.
• To avoid direct sunlight, the events were conducted in the early morning both days.

Competitors

80 competitors from 15 nations competed at these championships. This included ten relay teams which took place on the 13th.

Men's singles

January 13, 2008 at 8 AM CET (07:00 UTC)

Medal	Athlete	Time
Gold	Armin Zöggeler  (ITA)	1:44.341
Silver	Albert Demtschenko  (RUS)	+ 0.341
Bronze	David Möller  (GER)	+ 0.403
4th	Daniel Pfister  (AUT)	+ 0.428
5th	Martin Abentung  (AUT)	+ 0.474
6th	Felix Loch  (GER)	+ 0.509
7th	Stefan Höhener  (SUI)	+ 0.556
8th	Wilfried Huber  (ITA)	+ 0.806
9th	Jan Eichhorn  (GER)	+ 0.808
10th	Manuel Pfister  (AUT)	+ 0.876

This was Zöggeler's second European championship in this event and fifth straight medal at the championships.

Women's singles

January 12, 2008 at 9 AM CET (08:00 UTC)

Medal	Athlete	Time
Gold	Natalie Geisenberger  (GER)	1:35.364
Silver	Silke Kraushaar-Pielach  (GER)	+0.160
Bronze	Veronika Halder  (AUT)	+0.167
4th	Tatjana Hüfner  (GER)	+ 0.176
5th	Nina Reithmayer  (AUT)	+ 0.320
6th	Anke Wischnewski  (GER)	+ 0.412
7th	Maija Tīruma  (LAT)	+ 0.735
8th	Anna Orlova  (LAT)	+ 0.779
9th	Liliya Ludan  (UKR)	+ 1.019
10th	Alexandra Rodionova  (RUS)	+ 1.037

Geisenberger won her first ever championship. The event was delayed one hour to heavy snowfall in the area. Hadler is the first non-German to medal in this event at the Winter Olympic, world, or European level since fellow Austrian Angelika Neuner won a bronze at the 1998 Winter Olympics.

Men's doubles

January 12, 2008 at 3 PM CET (14:00 UTC)

Medal	Athlete	Time
Gold	Italy (Christian Oberstolz, Patrick Gruber)	1:33.779
Silver	Austria (Andreas Linger, Wolfgang Linger)	+0.159
Bronze	Italy (Gerhard Plankensteiner, Oswald Haselrieder)	+0.183
	Germany (Patric Leitner, Alexander Resch)
5th	Germany (André Florschütz, Torsten Wustlich)	+0.408
6th	Austria (Peter Penz, Georg Fischler)	+0.591
7th	Latvia (Andris Šics, Juris Šics)	+0.638
8th	Russia (Mihail Kuzmitch, Stanislav Mikheev)	+0.896
9th	Germany (Marcel Lorenz, Christian Baude)	+1.151
10th	Russia (Ivan Nevmerzhitski, Vladimir Prokhorov)	+1.174

The tie for the bronze was the first in a Winter Olympic, world championship, or European championship event since they started timing luge in the 1/1000ths of a second following the tie between Italy and East Germany in the men's doubles event at the 1972 Winter Olympics in Sapporo. Oberstolz and Gruber won their first ever title, ending Leitner and Resch's four-time championships reign in this event.

Mixed team relay

January 13, 2008 at 12 PM CET (11:00 UTC)

Medal	Athlete	Time
Gold	Latvia (Mārtiņš Rubenis, Maija Tīruma, Andris Šics, Juris Šics)	2:40.863
Silver	Austria (Martin Abentung, Veronika Halder, Andreas Linger, Wolfgang Linger)	+ 0.008
Bronze	Italy (Armin Zöggeler, Sandra Gasparini, Gerhard Plankensteiner, Oswald Haselrieder)	+ 0.050

For the first time since the event debuted at the 1988 championships, Germany did not medal, finishing fourth.

Medal table

Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	Italy  (ITA)	2	0	2	4
2	Germany  (GER)	1	1	2	4
3	Latvia  (LAT)	1	0	0	1
4	Austria  (AUT)	0	2	1	3
5	Russia  (RUS)	0	1	0	1
Totals (5 entries)		4	4	5	13

References

• Latvia wins mixed team relay.
• Zöggeler win men's singles event
• Oberstolz and Gruber wins men's doubles event
• Geisenberger wins women's singles European championships
• FIL-Luge news on snowfall delaying the women's singles event.
• FIL European Luge Championships 2008 preview - Accessed January 8, 2008.
• FIL European Luge Championships 2008 detailed schedule released - Accessed January 10, 2008.
• FIL European Luge Championships 2008 program ^{[ dead link ]}(in English and German) - Accessed January 7, 2008.
• FIL awards FIL World Luge Championships 2011 to Cesana, Italy (lists 2008 European championships that the venue will also host).
• FIL artificial track schedule for 2007-08, including the European championships at Cesana.
• Men's doubles European champions
• Men's singles European champions
• Mixed teams European champions
• Women's singles European champions