Canadian lugers place 5th in team relay at world championships
Germany's Felix Loch secures record-tying 6th luge world title
Canada's luge team slid into a fifth-place finish in the team relay event at the world championships on Sunday in Winterberg, Germany.
Russia finished on top of the podium with a time of 2:24.116.
Austria slid to the silver medal in 2:24.624, while the Germans took bronze at 2:24.647.
"I think we could easily have had fourth today, but the podium would have been really tough," said Walker. "It was really awesome to see Reid have a first-place reaction time, and hold his own against some of the bigger names on the singles circuit."
Canada won the Olympic silver medal in the relay last year with retired Olympians Sam Edney and Alex Gough. The new-look team won a bronze medal at the season-opener in Whistler, B.C.
Loch's name alongside Zoeggeler
Elsewhere Sunday, Felix Loch is the world men's luge champion for the record-tying sixth time, after the German great edged Reinhard Egger of Austria by one-tenth of a second.
WATCH | Felix Loch make luge history in Winterberg, Germany:
Loch tied the record held by Armin Zoeggeler of Italy, who won world championships in 1995, 1999, 2001, 2003, 2005 and 2011. Loch's previous world titles came in 2008, 2009, 2012, 2013 and 2016.
Russia won the team relay world championship later Sunday, with Austria second. Germany — with Loch, Natalie Geisenberger and the doubles team of Toni Eggert and Sascha Benecken, all of them world-title winners this weekend — finished a surprisingly low third.
But Germany easily finished atop the medal standings at the world championships, winning 12 of the possible 21 medals — five gold, five silver and two bronze. Austria won five medals, Russia won three and the U.S. one came with Emily Sweeney's bronze in the women's race on Saturday.
With files from The Associated Press