U.S. dominates World Cup luge

Chris Mazdzer of the United States won the World Cup luge men’s singles race on Friday at Mount Van Hoevenberg, besting teammate Tucker West as twotime Olympic champion Felix Loch of Germany faltered on his final run. Mazdzer posted a two-run time of 1 minute, 42.808 seconds to edge West by 0.033 seconds. Wolfgang Kindl of Austria won bronze.

Erin Hamlin won the World Cup luge women’s singles race on Saturday at Mount Van Hoevenberg, leading a sweep of the podium by the United States. Emily Sweeney finished

second and Summer Britcher was third in the first sweep in singles by the U.S. team. It also was Hamlin’s first gold medal in a two-heat World Cup singles event. Hamlin eclipsed her own track record with a time of 43.912 seconds on her first run and followed with a solid second run to finish in 1:27.961. Sweeney was 0.175 seconds behind and Britcher slid past German star Natalie Geisenberger to take the bronze.

World champion Francesco Friedrich of Germany defeated Oskars Melbardis of Latvia for the second time in as many races to win the two-man bobsled World Cup. Friedrich and brakeman Thorsten Margis had the fastest first run of 55.02 seconds and clocked a combined 1:50.37 after a second run of 55.35, enough to beat the overall World Cup champ by 0.13 seconds. Melbardis and brakeman Daumants Dreiskens had runs of 55.19 and 55.31 for a combined 1:50.50. Won Yun-jong and Seo Youngwoo were 0.34 seconds behind Friedrich in third, repeating their result from Altenberg last weekend and giving South Korea its second podium finish. Nick Cunningham and Carlo Valdes of the United States were 0.45 back in fourth, 0.01 ahead of Ugis Zalims and Intars Dambis of Latvia. Jamie Greubel Poser and Cherrelle Garrett later led an American 1-2 in the women’s race, clocking 56.74 and 57.00 for a combined time of 1:53.74.