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 1:44.341 Silver + 0.341 Bronze + 0.403 4th + 0.428 5th + 0.474 6th + 0.509 7th + 0.556 8th + 0.806 9th + 0.808 10th + 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 1:35.364 Silver +0.160 Bronze +0.167 4th + 0.176 5th + 0.320 6th + 0.412 7th + 0.735 8th + 0.779 9th + 1.019 10th + 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 (Christian Oberstolz, Patrick Gruber) 1:33.779 Silver (Andreas Linger, Wolfgang Linger) +0.159 Bronze (Gerhard Plankensteiner, Oswald Haselrieder) +0.183 (Patric Leitner, Alexander Resch) 5th (André Florschütz, Torsten Wustlich) +0.408 6th (Peter Penz, Georg Fischler) +0.591 7th (Andris Šics, Juris Šics) +0.638 8th (Mihail Kuzmitch, Stanislav Mikheev) +0.896 9th (Marcel Lorenz, Christian Baude) +1.151 10th (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 (Mārtiņš Rubenis, Maija Tīruma, Andris Šics, Juris Šics) 2:40.863 Silver (Martin Abentung, Veronika Halder, Andreas Linger, Wolfgang Linger) + 0.008 Bronze (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
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 - 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