Zoeggeler wins singles race as Italians sweep doubles at luge World Cup meet

Italians dominate luge World Cup

WINTERBERG, Germany — Two-time Olympic luge champion Armin Zoeggeler celebrated his 48th World Cup victory, winning the singles race to complete an Italian sweep at a meet on Saturday.

Christian Oberstolz and Patrick Gruber won their first race of the season to lead a 1-2 finish for Italy in the doubles, where Americans Marc Grimmette and Brian Martin took fourth to match the best U.S. effort in the event this season.

Zoeggeler won in a combined time of 1 minute, 47.601 seconds for the two runs. Albert Demtschenko of Russia was 0.02 seconds back and two-time world champion David Moeller of Germany was third, 0.05 back.

Zoeggeler leads the overall standings with 555 points.

Oberstolz and Gruber had a combined time of 1:28.597 over two runs to earn their 15th career victory. World champions Gerhard Plankensteiner and Oswald Haselrieder, also of Italy, were 0.20 seconds behind.

Patric Leitner and Alexander Resch of Germany, the 2002 Olympic champions, finished third. Grimmette and Martin totaled 1:29.126, while teammates Christian Niccum and Dan Joye took eighth in 1:29.517.

Grimmette and Martin turned in their best showing in six races to date with only two World Cup meets remaining before the Vancouver Olympics.

“We handled the sled well today, but we’re still trying to make it go a little faster,” Martin said. “These last three races are important. The big takeaway is that these events count for seeding at the Games.”

The higher seeded teams will have better ice conditions at Vancouver.

Niccum and Joye also placed fourth last month in Lillehammer, Norway.

Three-time world champions Andre Florschuetz and Torsten Wustlich of Germany lead the overall doubles standings with 442 points despite finishing 12th.