Europe

Wendl, Arlt lead German 1-2 at luge World Cup

KOENIGSSEE, Germany (AP) — Tobias Wendl and Tobias Arlt led a German 1-2 finish to maintain a perfect start to the season with their second luge World Cup win on Saturday.

Wendl and Arlt timed 1 minute, 40.977 seconds over two heats to beat compatriots Toni Eggert and Sascha Benecken by 0.415 seconds, in a repeat result from the opening men's doubles race of the season at Igls, Austria.

It was Wendl and Arlt's 12th World Cup win overall. "To claim a victory in front of a home crowd is very nice indeed," Arlt said. "We didn't really have more practice runs than our opponents, but of course it's always an advantage to compete back home."

Defending World Cup and Olympic champions, brothers Andreas and Wolfgang Linger, were third — 0.949 behind the winners. There was a German 1-2 in the women's race too, with Natalie Geisenberger edging defending and Olympic champion Tatjana Huefner by 0.031 seconds.

Four-time world champion Huefner set a track record of 50.709 seconds in her second run but was unable to match Geisenberger's time of 1:41.450 over two heats. "We had to face difficult conditions today," Geisenberger said after her 11th individual career win. "First it was cold and very slippery and then in the second run we had snow. That's why the sleds became sluggish. We changed the set up of my sled ahead of the first run and it really paid off."

Canada's Alex Gough was third — 0.151 behind. "Again a third place. That's not too bad," Gough said after repeating her result from Igls.

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