Germany's reigning Olympic champs win 1st luge gold of season
Canada's Justin Snith, Tristan Walker finish 9th in hometown Calgary
Germany's doubles team of Tobias Wendl and Tobias Arlt won their first World Cup luge gold of the season Friday in Calgary.
The reigning Olympic champions posted a two-run time of one minute 27.489 on the WinSport track that was the sliding venue for the 1988 Winter Olympics.
Watch Wendl and Arlt claim victory in Calgary:
"The first run was not that good, but the second run was much better," Wendl said. "We had the bonus at the start where we were really fast."
Their German teammates Toni Eggert and Sascha Benecken were second in one minute 27.580 seconds.
World Cup leaders Thomas Steu and Lorenz Koller of Austria finished third in 1:27.761.
Tristan Walker and Justin Snith of Calgary were ninth.
Watch the first doubles run:
"The second run was a little bit better, but we still had some pretty big mistakes on the bottom," Snith said.
"Not totally happy with it, but like Tristan said, it's a racing sport and we need to build on it. Take it as a training run for tomorrow in the relay and hopefully throw a good one down in the relay."
Watch the second run:
In the men's singles runs, Austria's Wolfgang Kindl won his second straight World Cup men's luge gold in Canada.
Watch Kindl's victory:
Kindl, also a winner in Whistler, B.C., last week, posted a two-run time of one minute 29.249 seconds on the WinSport track that served as the sliding venue for the 1988 Winter Olympics in the city.
Watch the men's first run:
"On the start, it was not my day today, but in the track I knew I was really fast," Kindl said. "I was fast throughout the week in training. Very happy I was the fastest today too."
The reigning world champion tops this season's World Cup standings.
Russia's Roman Repilov was second in 1:29.315 ahead of reigning Olympic champion David Gleirscher of Austria third in 1:29.370.
Watch the men's second run:
Reid Watts of Whistler, B.C., was the top Canadian in 15th.
"Whistler was a little messy for me, especially on the second run when I made a huge mistake up at the start," Watts said. "Today, definitely a lot more solid."