Latvia’s luge team prepare for World Cup season on new sleds and without coach Kivlenieks

Latvia’s luge team will start the new World Cup season with a reshaped coaching staff and sleds built to new technical rules. Klāvs Vasks, president of the Latvian Luge Federation (LKSF), named the squad at the federation’s annual news conference on Tuesday, and the Latvian Cup is being held in Sigulda on Wednesday and Thursday.

Squad and coaches

The squad is Kristers Aparjods, Gints Bērziņš, Kaspars Rinks, Kendija Aparjode, Zane Kaluma, Mārtiņš Bots, Roberts Plūme, Eduards Ševics-Mikeļševics, Lūkass Krasts, Marta Robežniece and Kitija Bogdanova. Vasks said Margita Sirsniņa and Jānis Gruzdulis-Borovojs were also likely to race for Latvia at the World Cup in Sigulda.

Inārs Kivlenieks will work with Canada’s national team this season. Latvia will be coached by Mārtiņš Rubenis, Sandris Bērziņš, Ivars Deinis and Mihails Arhipovs, and secretary general Kristaps Mauriņš said they would share responsibility for the athletes’ runs and their analysis.

One standard for everyone

The International Luge Federation (FIL) has introduced technical changes this season: the bridges, bows and runner fittings of the sleds are now the same for everyone. Rubenis told the news conference that the summer had been spent building new sleds and that everyone would have them by the start of the season. Work focused on singles sleds first, and improved doubles sleds could follow around Christmas.

Women face the biggest change, because their sled bridges had been much narrower than the new rules allow. Rubenis put it simply: “Now it’s a size 46 shoe, and the girls have to run in it too.” He said the new sleds had looked slower for the women in Sigulda, but the real balance of power would only become clear at the first races. He added that new sleds were an expensive purchase for smaller nations, since the big teams can no longer sell them their second-tier equipment.

Minor injury for Aparjods

Kristers Aparjods, one of the team’s leaders, missed last weekend’s President’s Cup start competition. He said he had slightly injured his wrist while pushing off with his hands on the start ramp in training and had not wanted to take any risks so close to the season.

Calendar

The World Cup season opens in Winterberg, Germany, on 28 November, followed by two events in Asia in December, in Pyeongchang and Yanqing. Rubenis, who will stay behind to work on the sleds, and Kaspars Rinks will not travel to Asia, where Latvia will have two men and two women in singles, one women’s double and two men’s doubles. The world championships take place in Igls, Austria, on 5-7 February. FIL will decide on a possible return of Russian athletes at an extraordinary congress on Thursday, 12 November.