Taubitz wins women's World Cup luge overall title, 27th consecutive German to claim crown
Streak lives on this year by less than 1 second
Julia Taubitz clinched the women's World Cup luge singles overall championship on Saturday in Yanqing, China, marking the 27th consecutive year that a German slider has captured the title.
And the streak lived on this year by less than one second.
Taubitz won the season-ending women's race, her third victory of the nine-race season. And that, combined with Madeleine Egle of Austria finishing ninth, was good enough to vault Taubitz atop the final standings for the fifth time in the last six seasons.
Egle could have clinched the title — and been the first non-German slider to win the women's World Cup crown since Gerda Weissensteiner of Italy in 1997-98 — with a third-place finish on Saturday. She finished 0.794 seconds back of third place, that gap being the difference that decided the overall championship.
Taubitz won, Natalie Maag of Switzerland was second and Merle Fraebel of Germany was third. Ashley Farquharson, the lone sled from the U.S. in the women's singles finale, was fifth.
WATCH l Full replay of Saturday's women's singles competition:
Taubitz finished the season with 657 points, while Egle had 629 and Lisa Schulte of Austria was third with 620. Farquharson, the only U.S. sled to enter all nine women's singles races this season, finished seventh in the overall season standings.
In women's doubles, Selina Egle and Lara Kipp of Austria got their seventh win of the season to clinch the World Cup crown. The Egle-Kipp pairing started the season with a sixth-place finish and went on a tear the rest of the way, with seven wins and one second-place showing in the final eight races.
Jessica Degenhardt and Cheyenne Rosenthal of Germany were second, finishing second behind the Austrians in the season standings as well.
Anda Upite and Zane Kaluma of Latvia were third in the race Saturday, and the U.S. sled of Chevonne Forgan and Sophia Kirkby was fourth — wrapping up a third-place finish in the season standings.
The men's doubles finale is Sunday, with Tobias Wendl and Tobias Arlt of Germany on the cusp of winning what would be a sixth World Cup season title. The men's singles finale is also Sunday, with Max Langenhan of Germany and Nico Gleirscher of Austria the only two sliders left with a mathematical chance at the title.
Langenhan would win the crown by finishing seventh or better.
Up next
Luge: World Cup men's doubles, men's singles and team relay at Yanqing on Sunday.
Skeleton: Day 1 of men's and women's world championships at Lake Placid, N.Y., on March 6.
Bobsleigh: Day 1 of women's monobob and two-man world championships at Lake Placid on March 8.
Watch live coverage of Sunday's World Cup events and next month's world championships on CBCSports.ca and CBC Gem. A live streaming schedule is available here.