Fischnaller claims maiden luge victory in Winterberg

The 23-year-old produced a storming first run of 52.428 seconds in Germany to top the standings at the halfway stage.

And while his second was only good enough for 14th – his combined time was too strong for the rest of the field, including Germany's Felix Loch who had to settle for second.

The home crowd favourite – a three-time Olympic champion – is the only slider to have made the podium in each of the first two races after his third-place finish in Igls last week.

That means Loch tops the overall standings alongside Semen Pavlichenko who won in Igls last week and was fifth here in Winterberg.

Third on the day was Russia's Stepan Fedorov, while defending World Cup champion Roman Repilov was down in 19th.

But the day belonged to the Italian Fischnaller who had made the podium once before with bronze in a sprint race back in 2014 but has now claimed the first victory of his career.