Martin Abentung
Abentung Martin ( born March 27, 1981 in Innsbruck ) is a former Austrian luger.
Abentung, who belongs to the SV Natters, sat at the age of ten years for the first time on a sled and ran at junior race since the mid- 1990s. According to a twelfth and seventh place at the Junior World Championships in 1996 and 1997, he won in 1998 with both the team ( next to him Veronika Halder and the double Linger / Linger ) and in the single-seater the title of World Junior Champion. Due to the success at junior level - in 2000 won by the Austrian his second Einsitzertitel - Abentung received early first inserts in the World Cup of adults. The first time in the national team from 2000 to 2006, he described afterwards as "hard learning years," since he could enter only sporadically good results. Best single result at this time was an eighth place at the World Cup in Altenberg 2002; he also won the bronze medal with the team at the European Championships in 2004.
Overall, Abentung drove in those years in the advanced world class. In this he established himself in the winter of 2006/ 07, his best season so far, from which he graduated in tenth of the overall World Cup standings. Previously, he had placed four times in the top ten; only at the home World Cup in Innsbruck -Igls, he was dropped to rank 20. In the following season, 2007/ 08, the Austrian increased once more. He finished in seventh place in the World Cup, was fifth in the single-seater in the European Championship and also won with the team both in Europe and in the World Championship silver medal. These two silver medals were Abentungs biggest successes in the adult area. After a mediocre 2008/09 season, which he finished in tenth place in the overall World Cup, he lost in the following winter the connection to the world's best and qualified for either the Olympic Winter Games in Vancouver, nor for the European Championship. On 2 October 2010 Abentung announced on its website end of his career.
Besides his career Martin Abentung is sports soldier and studied business administration at the University of Innsbruck. Since 2007 he has also been certified ( diploma) trainer in the sport of luge. In 2008 he received the Silver Medal for Services to the Republic of Austria.