Eggert-Benecken win third straight doubles luge world title

KRASNAYA POLYANA, Russia (AP) — Toni Eggert and Sascha Benecken of Germany won their third consecutive doubles luge world championship Saturday, while Russia’s Ekaterina Katnikova became just the third non-German in the last 42 years to win the women’s world title.

Eggert and Benecken held off the Russian team of Aleksandr Denisev and Vladislav Antonov by about one-tenth of a second to win their third straight championship. They joined the East German sled of Jorg Hoffmann and Jochen Pietzsch (1983, 1985, 1987) and current German teammates Tobias Wendl and Tobias Arlt (2013, 2015 and 2016) as the only winners of three consecutive doubles crowns.

Wendl and Arlt finished third Saturday. The U.S. sled of Chris Mazdzer and Jayson Terdiman was disqualified after one heat because of an issue with the temperature of their sled’s runners.

In the women’s race, Katnikova beat Germany’s Julia Taubitz by just under a tenth of a second for her first world championship. German sliders had won 26 of the last 28 women’s world titles before Saturday, the exceptions being Gerda Weissensteiner of Italy in 1993 and Erin Hamlin of the U.S. in 2009.

Viktoriia Demchenko of Russia was third in the women’s race. Summer Britcher was seventh for the U.S. Ashley Farquharson was 12th and Brittney Arndt finished 17th.