Ivanova succesfully defends luge title in Latvia

BySportsbeat

Published 12/01/2019 at 21:18 GMT

Russia's Tatyana Ivanova held off four-time Olympic champion Natalie Geisenberger, to win the World Cup luge singles title in Sigulda, Latvia, for the second successive year.

Eurosport

Image credit: Eurosport

Ivanova claimed her first singles World Cup win of the season, but the 28-year-old was not able to beat her own track record as she finished her runs in a combined time of 1.24.336s.

Behind her was Germany's Geisenberger, the winner of singles and team relay gold at both Sochi 2014 and PyeongChang 2018, who trailed by 0.128s with American Summer Britcher coming home in third, 0.350s behind to complete the podium.

Although they did not feature on the podium, Latvia had three top ten finishers to celebrate as Kendija Aparjode finished in fifth, Eliza Cauce in seventh and Ulla Zirne in tenth.

Luge