Semen Pavlichenko wins luge World Cup race, men's Euro title

By AP
Published

KOENIGSSEE, Germany (AP) Semen Pavlichenko broke German domination of a luge World Cup to take his first victory of the season and the European title on Friday.

The Russian was fastest on both runs for a combined time of 1 minute, 38.363 seconds, beating Germany's Ralf Palik by 0.248 seconds and Austria's third-place Wolfgang Kindl by 0.460.

World champion Felix Loch disappointed again in fourth. The German is still waiting for his first World Cup win of the season.

Russia's Roman Repilov, who was fifth in Koenigssee, still leads the standings on 462 points, ahead of Kindl on 436 and Loch on 435.

Loch's compatriots, Natalie Geisenberger and Tobias Wendl and Tobias Arlt, claimed the women's and men's doubles titles on Thursday.

Later Friday, they - and Palik - salvaged some German pride by winning the team relay in a combined time of 2:42.348, beating the U.S. team of Erin Hamlin, Tucker West, Matt Mortensen and Jayson Terdiman by 0.881 seconds.

The Austrian team was third.