WINTERBERG, Germany (AP) — Johannes Ludwig of Germany won his fourth race of the season on Saturday and further padded his lead in the World Cup overall standings.
Ludwig finished his two runs in 1 minute, 44.679 seconds, posting the third-fastest time in both heats but benefiting when early leaders Nico Gleirscher of Austria and Dominik Fischnaller of Italy had trouble in their second runs.
Gleirscher finished second in 1:44.747 and fellow Austrian Wolfgang Kindl — who was only 18th after the first run — had a huge second run to finish third in 1:44.860. Fischnaller fell to seventh after his second-run issues.
Ludwig picked up 100 points and now has 675 points through eight races on the 13-race schedule this season. He leads Kindl by 124 points and has a 245-point lead over Roman Repilov of Russia, currently sitting in third place.
Olympic silver medalist Chris Mazdzer was the top American in the men’s race, finishing 20th. Tucker West was 23rd and Jonny Gustafson was 28th.
DOUBLES
The German sled of Tobias Wendl and Tobias Arlt put themselves right back in the World Cup title chase, winning Saturday while some of their top rivals struggled.
Wendl and Arlt prevailed in 1:27.184, while Austrian sleds finished second and third. Thomas Steu and Lorenz Koller finished in 1:27.225, and Yannick Mueller and Armin Frauscher crossed the line in 1:27.338.
Wendl and Arlt moved within 102 points — 77 points closer than they were entering the day — of World Cup standings leaders Andris Sics and Juris Sics of Latvia, who lost control of the sled in their second run and wound up finishing 18th.
The Sics-Sics sled has 588 points. Toni Eggert and Sascha Benecken of Germany were disqualified on Saturday after not crossing the line in their second run and remained second in 506 points. Wendl and Arlt have 486.
Mazdzer and Jayson Terdiman were 16th for the U.S., one spot ahead of teammates Zach DiGregorio and Sean Hollander.
SUNDAY SCHEDULE
The weekend in Winterberg concludes Sunday with the women’s race and a team relay.
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