Canada's Tristan Walker and Justin Snith finish 5th in men's doubles luge

By Pete Evans, CBC Sports

Canadian lugers Tristan Walker and Justin Snith came in fifth place in men's doubles luge in Pyeongchang, missing the podium by less than half a second.

The Calgary-born duo posted a combined time of one minute, 32.369 seconds through the two runs in the final, missing the podium by 0.352 seconds.

WATCH | Canadian lugers take second and final run

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"At the end of the day it's fifth," Snith said after the race. "It's not the results we were hoping for but we will have to take it."

"They're really strong athletes," he said of the teams ahead of them. "Today I don't think it was in the cards."

His teammate Walker said he was mostly happy with the performance, and gave full marks to the podium finishers for their runs.

"We maybe could have got fourth with two perfect runs," he said, "but the way those top three sleds are sliding right now, I don't think [so.]"

They finished in fourth place in Sochi four years ago, but their Olympics are not over. They will participate in the team relay event tomorrow, and Walker said the team is feeling confident heading into that event.

"If you look at the four people that are ahead of us, two of us are from the same country [and the other ] two are from the same country," Walker said.

The race was won by the defending Olympic champions, Tobias Wendl and Tobias Artl of Germany. Silver went to the Austrian duo of Peter Penz and Georg Fischler, while the German world champions Toni Eggert and Sascha Benecken took the bronze.

A second Austrian team of Thomas Steu and Lorenz Koller took fourth place.

"In the relay," Walker said, "you take out two of those athletes and that puts us in the mix for sure."