The World Cup race in sledding on the Königssee in Bavaria has been overshadowed by a heavy fall. The Russian starter Viktoria Demtschenko hurled her first sled from the sled, bouncing her helmet on the track.

Unconscious Demtschenko had then slipped through the gutter - and hit his head again against distance. Paramedics took care of the Russian woman, carried her off the track with a stretcher and took her to hospital with an ambulance.

The 23-year-old daughter of former luger Albert Demtschenko suffered a traumatic brain injury, said the race doctor. Andreas Leidinger with. "She was stable at all times," he said.

The accident had occurred in one of the fastest sections of the railway. Demtschenko's fall was not the only one on Koenigssee. Her team-mate Ekaterina Baturina and Austrian Birgit Platzer also lost control of their sledges during heavy snowfall, but remained uninjured.

Double victory in doubles

Do the toboggan double-seaters Tobias Wendl / Tobias Arlt still believe in the overall World Cup victory after the victory of Team Eggert / Benecken am Königssee? #ZDFwintersport pic.twitter.com/kjpNHN8JUK

- ZDF Sport (@ ZDFsport) January 5, 2019

Before the women's race, Toni Eggert and Sascha Becken had won the toboggan double-seater race. The duo relegated Olympic champions Tobias Wendl and Tobias Arlt to second place with a good three tenths of a second lead. Due to the success, they expanded the lead in the World Cup to now 109 points on Wendl and Art.

Eggert and Becken won the first time against Wendl and Art on their home track at Königssee. Since January 2010, the Olympic champions of Sochi and Pyeongchang won every race on the track. "We were never sure whether it would even be possible in our career to beat the two here on the Königssee," said Eggert. "But many things went well today."