Luge-Langenhan takes crushing singles gold for Germany

CORTINA D'AMPEZZO, Italy, Feb 8 : Max Langenhan delivered an astonishing performance to strike gold in the men's luge singles on Sunday, breaking the track record four times in a row to win by a mile and continue Germany's domination of the event they have taken in four of the last five Olympics.

In a sport where positions are often decided by thousandths of a second, Austria's Jonas Mueller was over half a second adrift for silver, with Italian Dominik Fischnaller repeating his third place from four years ago.

Double world champion Langenhan had laid down his challenge on Saturday when he twice set the track record, including with the first run of the competition, with Mueller the only other athlete to break 53 seconds.

Langenhan, who said on Saturday he needed intense physiotherapy to get ready to race after waking up with severe neck pain, was first out of the gate again in the third run on Sunday and clocked a massive third record of 52.705.

Former world champion Mueller was also impressive with another sub-53 time and a start record but he still lost ground, leaving Langenhan with a relatively comfortable cushion of almost three tenths of a second going into the final run when he was the last man out.

He did not sit back though, instead roaring to an incredible fourth record in a row of 52.660 seconds for a huge victory.

"When I saw the result, I was so happy, it’s an absolute dream," Langenhan said. "On the top part, it wasn’t actually that good. From Tofane (three turns from the end) onwards, I started to sense what was possible."

Having won the World Championship title in the last two years, Langenhan has again timed his season to peak when it matters most. He is currently third in the World Cup rankings, without