From Winterberg, GER
(Dec. 19, 2020) – As broadcasting legend John Morgan likes to say, sometimes there’s a “race within a race”, where teammates are racing to be the best slider in their nation while also taking on all of the other nations as well.
Nothing demonstrates that more than the battle between the German luge teams of Tobias Wendl & Tobias Arlt and Toni Eggert & Sascha Benecken. The two teams came into the race in Winterberg tied for the most doubles wins on the FIL World Cup tour with 44 each, and the two teams sat in first and second going into the second heat of action on Saturday.
Wendl & Arlt held a slight advantage over Eggert & Benecken going into the second heat, with the latter team taking the first run of the second heat between the two. Eggert & Benecken easily slid into the lead, with a .202 advantage over anyone else in the field.
It was then Wendl & Arlt’s turn, and while they couldn’t match the second heat pace set by Eggert & Benecken, they had enough in the bank to hold off their teammates and rivals to win their 45th gold medal to take back the overall medal lead.
Eggert & Benecken finished second, the only team within a tenth of Wendl & Arlt, while Andris and Juris Sics moved up from seventh in the first heat to finish third.
Latvia’s Oskars Gudramovics & Peteris Kalnins finished fourth, just .054 off the podium, while Aleksandr Denisev & Vladisla Antonov finished fifth and Italy’s Ludwig Rieder & Patrick Rastner finished sixth.
Thomas Steu & Lorenz Koller, the World Cup overall leaders, had a disastrous first run with a 16th place effort. They made up for it in the second heat though, moving up to seventh place overall.
The United States, Canada, and China will all return to action after the new year.
Results:
| Pos | Names | Nation | Bib | Start 1 | Start 2 | Run 1 | Run 2 | Total |
| 1 | Wendl / Arlt | GER | 21 | 3.048 | 3.036 | 43.464 | 43.498 | 1:26.962 |
| 2 | Eggert / Benecken | GER | 23 | 3.023 | 3.022 | 43.536 | 43.466 | 1:27.002 |
| 3 | Sics / Sics | LAT | 20 | 3.056 | 3.055 | 43.693 | 43.511 | 1:27.204 |
| 4 | Gudramovics / Kalnins | LAT | 2 | 3.065 | 3.045 | 43.613 | 43.645 | 1:27.258 |
| 5 | Denisev / Antonov | RUS | 12 | 3.054 | 3.068 | 43.589 | 43.735 | 1:27.324 |
| 6 | Rieder / Rastner | ITA | 19 | 3.008 | 3.014 | 43.779 | 43.588 | 1:27.367 |
| 7 | Steu / Koller | AUT | 24 | 3.015 | 3.059 | 44.009 | 43.381 | 1:27.390 |
| 8 | Rieder / Kainzwaldner | ITA | 14 | 3.052 | 3.044 | 43.795 | 43.681 | 1:27.476 |
| 9 | Orlamünder / Gubitz | GER | 16 | 3.090 | 3.078 | 44.007 | 43.625 | 1:27.632 |
| 10 | Nagler / Malleier | ITA | 18 | 3.027 | 3.019 | 43.976 | 43.690 | 1:27.666 |
| 11 | Chmielewski / Kowalewski | POL | 11 | 3.056 | 3.071 | 43.823 | 43.853 | 1:27.676 |
| 12 | Yuzhakov / Prokhorov | RUS | 15 | 3.089 | 3.079 | 43.945 | 43.734 | 1:27.679 |
| 13 | Park / Cho | KOR | 10 | 3.098 | 3.104 | 43.953 | 43.834 | 1:27.787 |
| 14 | Müller / Frauscher | AUT | 22 | 3.080 | 3.104 | 44.249 | 43.576 | 1:27.825 |
| 15 | Bots / Plume | LAT | 17 | 3.033 | 3.044 | 43.593 | 44.358 | 1:27.951 |
| 16 | Gatt / Schöpf | AUT | 9 | 3.066 | 3.760 | 43.938 | 44.072 | 1:28.010 |
| 17 | Stakhiv / Lysetskyi | UKR | 7 | 3.115 | 3.131 | 44.108 | 44.081 | 1:28.189 |
| 18 | Vavercak / Zmij | SVK | 8 | 3.103 | 3.082 | 44.109 | 44.116 | 1:28.225 |
| 19 | Vejdelek / Pekny | CZE | 4 | 3.143 | 3.146 | 44.403 | 44.356 | 1:28.759 |
| 20 | Gitlan / Serban | ROU | 6 | 3.099 | 3.109 | 44.245 | 44.564 | 1:28.809 |
| 21 | Turea / Motzca | ROU | 5 | 3.072 | 3.071 | 44.525 | 44.429 | 1:28.954 |
| 22 | Siscanu / Oprea | MDA | 3 | 3.139 | 3.235 | 44.880 | 46.801 | 1:31.681 |
| 23 | Hoi / Levkovych | UKR | 1 | 3.144 | 3.178 | 45.878 | 47.246 | 1:33.124 |
| DNF | Kashkin / Korshunov | RUS | 13 | 3.073 | 3.073 | 43.609 | DNF |
