World champions Eggert, Benecken win 30th-career luge World Cup gold
Alex Gough finishes 7th in women's event
World champions Toni Eggert and Sascha Benecken returned to form by edging German rivals Tobias Wendl and Tobias Arlt to win their 30th luge World Cup on Saturday in Oberhof, Germany.
Eggert and Benecken were second behind the Olympic champions on their first run but did enough on their second to win by seven thousandths of a second.
Wendl and Arlt ended Eggert and Benecken's four-race winning streak at Koenigssee last weekend, but a mistake in their second run allowed their rivals to claim their seventh win of the season. Eggert and Benecken stretched their overall lead to 218 points with four races remaining.
Peter Penz and Georg Fischler were third, 0.498 seconds off the pace, ahead of Robin Johannes Geueke and David Gamm of Germany, and the Sics brothers — Andris and Juris — of Latvia.
Canadians Tristan Walker and Justin Snith were 12th.
Germans sweep women's podium
German domination continued in the women's race, won on her home track by Dajana Eitberger ahead of teammates Natalie Geisenberger and world champion Tatjana Huefner.
Eitberger finished 0.047 ahead of Geisenberger and 0.333 ahead of Huefner.
Canadian Alex Gough was 0.678 back in 7th place, and Kimberly McRae was in 10th. 0.785 behind.
"I was having good runs in both heats, but made a mistake out of corner 11 both times. I was able to handle it better on the second run," said the 30-year-old Gough. "I had good training, but wasn't able to get it right today."
Geisenberger still leads the standings, with 795 points, ahead of Eitberger on 618 and Huefner on 585. Gough is in fourth with 549 points, and McRae is with with 359.
The men's race and a team relay were scheduled for Sunday.
With files from CBC Sports