Triple Olympic medalists Stefan Krausse and Jan Behrendt of Germany used a record-setting opening run Sunday en route to their third straight World Cup doubles luge victory of the season.
Defending Olympic gold medalist Gerda Weissensteiner of Italy gave her country a sweep of the weekends individual events by sliding to victory in the women's race.The Koenigssee meet was the final World Cup event prior to the World Championships Feb. 2-4 in Altenberg, Germany.
Krausse and Behrendt, winners of all three Olympic medals beginning in 1988 as well as four World Championship gold medals, posted an opening time of 44.880 seconds down the slick, three-quarter-mile run. They came back with 45.089 in the second heat for a total of 1 minute, 29.969 seconds.
Teammates Yves Mankel and Thomas Rudolph settled for second place, 15-hundredths of a second back with 1:30.110 on times of 45.065 and 45.045 seconds. The United States was lead by Chris Thorpe of Marquette, Mich., and Gordy Sheer of Croton, N.Y., who registered the best time in the second run and finished third in 1:30.177.
Thorpe and Sheer, 1995 World Championship silver medalists, began in fourth place with 45.199 seconds before closing in 44.978.
"I felt pure rage after the first run, said Thorpe, referring to his team's errors late in the opening heat. "I could feel the speed and the time go away. The gold was there for the taking, but those mistakes cost us.
Sheer agreed.
"We drove ourselves off line going into the Kreisl (a 360-degree turn) and skidded. We were focused much better in the second run. Now we need to do that in both runs."