Wendl-Arlt close gap at the top of luge doubles World Cup standings

Last weekend Wendl and Arlt retained their World Championship title in Latvia and they continue to rein in fellow German duo Toni Eggert and Sascha Benecken at the top of the World Cup standings with just two races to go.

"We've achieved our most important goal of the season with the World Championship title, anything else that comes is an added bonus," said Wendl. "There is still lots of suspense in the overall World Cup standings, but really we botched our hopes of winning with our bad start to the season."

In the first run, Wendl and Arlt improved on the track record set just the day before by Robin Geueke and David Gamm of Germany (41.674 seconds), coming down their home track in 41.567.

And they remained in front with a combined time of 1:23.146 minutes, despite an excellent second run by Eggert and Benecken of 41.580 which helped them seal a second-place berth.

"We did what we had to do, but a bit more room to breathe would have been nice," said Eggert. "But after our mistakes in the first run we could easily have come third at the end."

Eggert–Benecken now have 925 points in the overall rankings, but Wendl–Arlt's fifth victory of the World Cup season now leaves them on 885.

Third place in the Altenberg race went to Latvia's Andris and Juris Sics, and they remain third overall with 594 points.

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