1706661227
“We are happy with what we did at the World Championships and the medals we won. Seven medals in one World Championship – this is unprecedented for Latvia, and our athletes have set a great record in history,” said the head coach of the luge team, Zintis Šaicāns, who is in his first season in this position.
“But even after this success, I cannot hide that there is still a little bitterness about the past championship,” said the head coach of the national team, under whose supervision the Latvian athletes won five medals in the sprint competition, Anda Upīte and Zane Kaluma won silver in the women’s doubles, while bronze was won in the team relay.
“The leaders of our national team, usually the most stable athletes, have not reached their full potential,” explained Shaicans. “Krister (Aparijod) had an excellent ride, he was close, maybe even ahead of the leader from Germany, but then he made a micro-error that turned into a crash in the very next corner. Elina (Vitola) and Candy (Aparjod) also had chances for a better result, the same applies to Robots (Roberts Plūme/Mārtiņš Bots). This is sport, every mistake costs, everything is understandable, I’m just explaining why, even after a historic World Cup with seven medals for Latvia, which would have been an unimaginable achievement in recent times, now I can honestly say that we could do better .”
Representing independent Latvia, Latvian athletes had previously won a total of 14 medals at the World Luge Championships. 50% of the previous total performance was now achieved in one weekend. It cannot be called a big surprise, as Latvian athletes are becoming more and more regular on the podium both this season and the previous one.
“Here I can agree 100% that our athletes have set the bar very high, even unimaginably high,” said Shaicans. “With their success so far, they have spoiled the fans and, in a way, themselves. Now, for example, Elīna is fourth in the world, and it almost begs the question of what worked and what didn’t. But how many times before.” Has a Latvian athlete been this high in the World Championships? That’s why, definitely – in Latvian luge sport the bar that needs to be overcome has been set very high.”
He made similar comments about the bronze medal won in the team relay, assessed the medal in the championship race, but also did not hide the fact that he wanted more and – most importantly – the national team could certainly have achieved more. Kristers Aparjod, who had fallen on the route the day before, also took part in the relay, and not without physical consequences. He has a severe neck bruise that the doctors will be working on this week, but Shaicans was sure that Aparjod will also start this weekend.
“I saw some opinions that Austria gave us a medal,” Šaičans said of the plight of the Austrian team, which had an otherwise excellent World Championships in the relay, finishing only sixth. “I would like to say it differently. I would say that someone didn’t give us the bronze medal, but that we gave Germany the gold medal. Taking into account the way our sled slid and the sporting condition of our athletes, with optimal racing, we would definitely have fought for gold against Germany.”
Germany’s victory in the team relay was one of three gold medals in nine disciplines, with Austria leading the medal standings with a total of four gold medals and nine medals. This is a big change from the 2023 World Cup, where Germany won eight of the nine gold medals and 16 of the 27 available medals, and the World Cup was also held at Germany’s Altenberg circuit this year.
“Of course there is dissatisfaction with the World Cup in the German national team camp,” said Shaican. “However, the athletes of the Austrian national team worked well and, of course, showed great competition. And of course it is extremely pleasing that Latvia also intervened in the competition between these two luge sports superpowers, which ultimately won the same number of medals as Germany (seven each).
On Monday the lugers had a rest day and the team went on a trip together to catch their breath after the World Championships and get in the mood for the next competition. They will follow this weekend when the World Cup stage takes place there in Altenberg.
Although the World Cup is the most important competition of the season and a conditional highlight, this time it is even before the middle of the season – after the fourth of nine PK stages. There are still five stages left and Šaicāns admitted that the successful conditioning of athletes for the next starts after the World Cup was a matter that had been discussed within the national team.
“Some of our athletes are in top positions in the overall World Cup rankings, which they want to maintain and even improve,” said the national team coach. “The last two stages of the season take place in Sigulda and there is always a special motivation to prove yourself on the track. “In addition, I am sure that there will be interesting fights ahead, because after such a World Cup, the German athletes will also be very motivated to take revenge by starting in the World Cup.”
Overall medal ranking PČ2024VValstsZSBTotal 1.Austria43292.Germany32273.Latvia12474.Italy10015.USA01126.Switzerland0101
#Austria #didnt #give #bronze #medal #gave #gold #Germany #Winter #sports #Sportacentrs.com