Canada's Walker, Snith show progress on new sled, placing 10th at luge World Cup
Germany's Felix Loch on verge of men's overall title after 8th win of season
Too many mistakes prevented Canadian luge veterans Tristan Walker and Justin Snith from carrying over the momentum of Friday's Nations Cup qualifying victory into Saturday's battle for a podium finish at the Viessmann World Cup.
Instead, the three-time Olympians were forced to settle for 10th place in Oberhof, Germany, after clocking a two-run time of one minute 22.284 seconds in their second race of the season after staying in Canada for the first half of the campaign due to COVID-19 risks.
"We definitely took a big step forward from [our first week back] in Konigssee World Cup," said the 29-year-old Walker of Cochrane, Alta. "Training went really well this week, but we just had too many mistakes in the race. This shows we are making some good progress on the new sled, but it's still pretty fresh and needs some getting used to."
Snith, 28, and Walker have three top-five finishes in Oberhof over their careers but will use their latest performance as a stepping stone and learning experience ahead of world championships.
This season, Walker and Snith selected four charities — STARS Air Ambulance, Cochrane & Area Humane Society, Kvisle Fund for GBM, and the Gord Downie & Chanie Wenjack Fund — to profile on their sled in each of their three World Cup and world championship races after losing their personal sponsor due to COVID-19 challenges.
This week, the Kvisle Fund for GBM sticker adorned their sled, a charity close to Snith.
"The Kvisle Fund for GBM really hits close to home for me because I am personally connected to the Kvisle/Aldous family," he told Canadian Luge Association. "Seeing their fight has inspired me to leverage my position as an Olympian and role model myself for young Canadians, to do more to support the Kvisle Fund in their fight to improve care and outcomes for patients and families facing a Glioblastoma Multiforme brain cancer diagnosis.
"I am very proud to be able to use our platform to bring additional awareness to charities in this country that are doing important work in our communities, especially during these challenging times."
Steu, Koller close in on doubles title
Austria's Thomas Steu and Lorenz Koller moved closer to clinching the season title by winning Saturday, rallying past the German sled of Tobias Wendl and Tobias Arlt. Latvia's Andris Sics and Juris Sics took third.
Steu and Koller now have a 96-point lead over Germany's Toni Eggert and Sascha Benecken with three races left in the overall standings. A German sled, either Wendl and Arlt or Eggert and Benecken, has won the overall World Cup title in each of the last eight seasons, a streak now in jeopardy.
Steu and Koller would be mathematically certain of winning the title simply by finishing third or better in each of the final three World Cup races.
The women's race in Oberhof is Sunday.
Elsewhere on Saturday, Reid Watts was the lone Canadian to qualify for the men's singles race. The 2018 Olympian, who hails from Whistler, B.C., finished 21st in 1:26.516.
Germany's Felix Loch set the time to beat at 1:25.380, followed by Jonas Mueller (1:25.627) and Austrian teammate David Gleirscher (1:25.823).
Felix Loch is about to reclaim his title as World Cup luge overall champion.
WATCH | Felix Loch wins for the 8th time in 9 races this season:
The two-time Olympic champion from Germany is now virtually assured of claiming the season-long men's overall title for the seventh time after dominating yet another race Saturday. He was a quarter-second faster than Austria's Jonas Mueller for the win, his eighth in nine races this season.
Austria's David Gleirscher was third in Oberhof, Germany, one spot ahead of Germany's Johannes Ludwig.
Loch now has 855 standings points with three World Cup races left, 290 points ahead of Ludwig -- with a maximum of 300 points remaining to be claimed this season. Loch basically needs to just finish one of the season's final races to clinch the points title, no matter what Ludwig does.
Chris Mazdzer was the top American, placing 20th. Reid Watts of Whistler, B.C., was 21st.
With files from The Associated Press
