World Pole Sports Championships

“It certainly doesn’t get easier with age”

Sebastian Sommer (left) canceled, Manuel Wildhölzl is on the attack.(Bild: BÖE)

The curling aces' home World Championships in Kapfenberg are in full swing! While two Salzburgers have withdrawn, Manuel Wildhölzl, a veteran, is still in the running. His goal? A top placing - and gold in the team!

As a kind of foretaste, the highly successful youth part of the curling aces' home world championships in Kapfenberg began last week. It was already clear then that both U23 hopeful Sebastian Sommerer (EV Mittersill) and Thomas Fuchs (USC Abersee) had to cancel their participation.

As of Tuesday, only one Salzburg player from the original trio will remain: team fixed star Manuel Wildhölzl. The Mittersill wide hunter will only be arriving on the opening day and grins: "It doesn't get any easier with age." Nevertheless, even as a 41-year-old, he has high expectations of himself and his performance.

In the singles, the Germans and Styrian hope Peter Neubauer are probably the favorites. "But I definitely want to be in the top five." Neubauer did win the internal qualifier. "But that was on asphalt. It's always different on ice and I have my chance."

And then there's the team competition. The goal is clear: to challenge Germany! "We want the gold medal there," says Wildhölzl aggressively.