Germany's Taubitz battles heavy snow to prevail at luge World Cup
Teammate Geisenberger's overall women's lead narrowed to 17 points; Canada's Carolyn Maxwell 11th
Julia Taubitz of Germany won a World Cup luge race on Saturday in one minute 44.971 seconds, prevailing on a day where snow piling up on the track befuddled many sliders in Koenigssee, Germany.
American Summer Britcher was second in 1:45.391 and Austrian Hannah Prock finished third in 1:45.586 for her first World Cup medal.
Watch Julia Taubitz inch closer to the overall World Cup lead:
Geisenberger was one of many who struggled in the snow and finished eighth on her home track, ending a streak of 25 consecutive World Cup races with a medal for the Olympic champion.
Calgary's Carolyn Maxwell, who posted a career-best 10th-place finish on her home track in Calgary last month, was 11th as race officials decided to sweep the track after every three sliders.
Those who were on the track immediately following the sweep reaped the benefits while others had to plow through the snow, losing enormous amounts of speed and dropping out of the medal hunt.
'Top-notch performance'
"There's only so much you can do to steer around snow," Britcher said. "I just let the sled go middle. It was simple and didn't complicate things for me."
Maxwell, an 18-year-old rookie on the World Cup circuit, clocked a two-run time of 1:46.140 on the fast 10-corner track.
"This is a very good result for such a young athlete," Canada head coach Wolfgang Staudinger told the Canadian Luge Association of Maxwell, who sat 15th after her first run. "She put down a top-notch performance."
Ekaterina Katnikova of Russia, who led after the first heat and took advantage of clean ice, was 22nd on a snow-covered track in the second heat and finished 17th overall. Geisenberger managed to keep her World Cup overall lead, her advantage over Taubitz trimmed to 17 points.
Britcher remained third in the overall standings after earning her second silver medal of the season.
Walker, Snith 13th in doubles
Conditions were a bit different in the earlier doubles race Saturday, and the results were more predictable.
Toni Eggert and Sascha Benecken prevailed for Germany, with countrymen Tobias Wendl and Tobias Arlt finishing second. Thomas Steu and Lorenz Koller took third for Austria.
It was the sixth medal of the season for the Eggert-Benecken sled, and the fourth gold.
Elsewhere, the Canadian doubles team of Tristan Walker and Justin Snith broke their straps at the start of the first run and placed 13th in 1:43.703.
"It was some bad luck and the guys had the summer tires on the sled when we needed the winter ones today," Staudinger said. "We slid good, but just weren't able to react to the [poor weather] conditions."
With files from CBC Sports