Winter Olympics - Johannes Ludwig produces imperious performance to claim luge gold at Beijing 2022

Germany’s Johannes Ludwig claimed his second Olympic gold medal after emerging victorious with an imperious performance in the men’s luge at Beijing 2022. The bronze medallist from Pyeongchang showed outstanding consistency to be the fastest athlete in three of the four heats, and added an individual gold to the one he won as part of Germany's relay team four years ago.

Ad/> /> Beijing 2022Luger becomes first Georgian to race at Olympics 12 years after family tragedy10 HOURS AGO The 35-year-old Ludwig finished 0.16 seconds ahead of Wolfgang Kindl with a time of 3:48.735, as the Austrian took home silver and Italy’s Dominik Fischnaller claimed bronze, 0.95 seconds behind. In fact, the top three remained the same in both of the last two heats, as Ludwig came into the final round holding a narrow lead ahead of Kindl in second and Fischnaller third.

Olympics Unlocked: Amy Williams explains how the Luge works Kindl secures maiden European title at St Moritz luge World Cup From a British perspective, Rupert Staudinger finished 23rd in the third heat with a time of 2:56.313 – agonisingly falling just short of Jonathan Gustafson’s time of 2:55.671 and missing out on a top-20 finish to secure progression. /> There was frustration for defending Olympic champion David Gleirscher, who only finished 15th with a time of 3:53.172 after heading into the final run more than three seconds behind Ludwig.

German great Felix Loch, the Olympic champion in 2010 and 2014, narrowly missed the podium this time as he finished fourth, less than 0.2 seconds away from the bronze medal. Latvia’s Gints Berzins deserved plenty of plaudits after clocking a time of 3:50.173 to claim seventh, with the 19-year-old more than holding his own among senior