Semen Pavlichenko on top in battle of the champions during opening World Cup
BySportsbeat
Updated 19/11/2017 at 23:20 GMT
It proved to be the battle of the world champions in Austria with 2015 gold medallist Semen Pavlichenko emerging triumphant in the opening men's luge World Cup of the season.
Russia's Semen Pavlichenko
Image credit: Reuters
The Russian had originally been lying down in fifth after the first run at a snow-hit Innsbruck-Igls but climbed the standings after a rapid second run to finish with an overall time of 1:41.771.
That was five hundredths quicker than local hero and current world champion Wolfgang Kindl who was second.
Five-time world champion Felix Loch was third for Germany after also recovering from a slower first run to move up the rankings.
Italy's Dominik Fischnaller recorded the best time on the first run but fell back to sixth place in the final standings after going 19th quickest on his second run.
Early season series leader and 2017 European champion Pavlichenko said: "This is the outcome of all the hard work I put into training in the run-up to the Olympic winter. I am very happy with this opening race.
"I can confirm that I am racing with runners that are made in a factory that also produces Kalashnikov weapons."
Two-time reigning Olympic singles champion Loch said: "Things are slowly moving in the right direction; maybe not on the first run but I think I'm making good progress, even though the second run was just a real risk.
"I was a bit nervous as the track hadn't been cleared ahead of me, but I made the best of it."
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