Fischnaller overcomes sled issues to take sprint gold

Dominik Fischnaller soared to victory in the first sprint event of the luge World Cup season, even though he had to borrow his teammate's sled. Fischnaller is still waiting for his sled to arrive from Beijing after his luggage was lost and had to use Leon Felderer's instead. Still, he was unstoppable in Sochi as he clocked 34.833s for his run to take gold from Russia's Roman Repilov – who was also in a rental sled - and Austria's Wolfgang Kindl. Overall World Cup leader Johannes Ludwig could only muster sixth, while Latvia's Kristers Aparjods was eighth just 24 hours after his first World Cup victory. Aparjods' compatriots Andris and Juris Sics landed gold in the men's doubles, while Russia's Alexander Denisyev and Vladislav Antonov and Germany's Robin Johannes Geueke and David Gamm completing the podium. The Sics brothers went fastest in 31.385s, while the pre-event favourites – Russia's Andrej Bogdanov and Iurii Prokhorov – finished a surprise sixth. In the women's competition, Julia Taubitz was as dominant in the sprint as she is on a full course as she won a third World Cup event in a row. Taubitz stopped the clock in 31.743s to beat USA's Summer Britcher by 0.023s and her German teammate Dajana Eitberger by 0.032s. Sportsbeat 2021