Russian world champion Roman Repilov held off Italy’s Dominik Fischnaller to win the World Cup men’s overall luge title Sunday, while the U.S. won a silver medal in the season-ending team relay.
Repilov was third in the final men’s race of the season, good enough to secure his second World Cup overall title. Fischnaller was fifth and ended second in the World Cup standings.
Repilov ended up 16 points ahead of Fischnaller in the title chase.
Roman Repilov of Russia hugs his coach Albert Demchenko after winning the single race at the men's luge World Cup in Koenigssee, Germany, Sunday, March 1, 2020. (Peter Kneffeldpa via AP)
Russia’s Semen Pavlichenko won the race, three one-thousandths of a second ahead of Austria’s Jonas Mueller. For the U.S., Tucker West was 12th, Chris Mazdzer 17th, Jonny Gustafson 20th and Sean Hollander 23rd.
The Americans were a strong second in the final team relay, with West, Summer Britcher and the doubles team of Mazdzer and Jayson Terdiman finishing behind Germany and ahead of Russia in the race for the medals.
USA Luge finished the World Cup season including team relay competitions with 11 medals, nine of them silver and two bronze. Britcher led the team with six medals (five silver, one bronze, two of them coming in relays), while West won four silvers, Emily Sweeney won two silvers and a bronze and the Mazdzer-Terdiman team were part of two silver-medal finishes in the relays.
Dominik Fischnaller of the third placed team Italy cross the finish line during the team competition of the Luge World Cup in Altenberg, Germany, Sunday, Jan. 12, 2020. (Matthias Rietscheldpa via AP)
The 2020-21 luge World Cup season is scheduled to start Nov. 28 in Innsbruck, Austria. The tour will have two North American stops — a World Cup Jan. 23-24, 2021 in Lake Placid, New York, and the world championships in Whistler, British Columbia from Feb. 5-7, 2021.