Geisenberger pounces for victory after Ivanova error

At the half-way stage it had looked like Russia's two-time European Champion Tatyana Ivanova was about to become the sixth different World Cup winner this season when she set a new track record of 41.583 seconds to lead after the first run.

But a mistake on her second run let her rivals in as she dropped back to third and Geisenberger took advantage to seal the 36th individual win of her career in a combined winning time of 1:23.485, with German teammate Tatjana Huefner second, 0.028 seconds back.

Three-time European and World Champion Geisenberger sits on 612 points in the World Cup standings with Huefner second on 585, and former World Champion Erin Hamlin from the USA moving up to third place after placing eighth in Sigula.

Geisenberger, Olympic singles champion in 2014, said: "I certainly hadn't banked on Tatyana Ivanova making a mistake. She would definitely have won here without the error, so this is a bit of a surprise World Cup victory for me.

"There were only two German girls on the starting line, and we finished first and second so we have a 100% success rate."

The World Cup tour now takes a break with the World Championships in Innsbruck next up from January 27-29.

Sportsbeat 2017