Ivanova and Repilov secure luge Whistler World Cup victories

The Russian prevailed on the opening weekend of the season in Innsbruck and repeated the feat on the artificial track in Canada, dominant in both of her runs to take top spot.

Ivanova led from start to finish in the first run, clocking the quickest start time of 3.361 seconds and completing her opening effort in 38.736s.

It was to get even better second time around, stopping the clock in 38.642s for the fastest time of the day and a strong total of 1:17.378.

That proved to be 0.191 seconds ahead of Anna Berreiter, who could only register the fifth-fastest second run but still did enough to take home the silver medal in just her third World Cup race.

Ivanova’s teammate Viktoriia Demchenko recovered from a disappointing first run – where she sat eighth – to take the last spot on the podium with a time of 1:17.599.

Russian success continued into the men’s competition where Roman Repilov came home for gold – jumping up from second at the halfway stage.

Recording the quickest start of the second runs in 6.958s, that early speed proved vital as Repilov crossed the line in 49.839 seconds for a total of 1:39.713 and his eighth World Cup victory.

Two solid runs from world champion Felix Loch saw the German take the silver medal, 0.147 seconds back, while bronze went to Italy’s Dominik Fischnaller who jumped from seventh spot at halfway.

Johannes Ludwig, who had led after the opening run, had to settle for fourth place in a repeat of his World Championship disappointment.

Repilov now takes the overall lead in the World Cup standings, with incumbent Jonas Müller only able to finish tenth.

Repilov said: "In the past I was not always so stable in my performance. That has gotten better now. I now drive much more consistently."

Sportsbeat 2019