The Olympic luge champions Tobias Wendl and Tobias Arlt won bronze in the doubles at the home World Championships in Altenberg and thus the fifth medal for the German team.
On Saturday the duo only had to admit defeat to the new world champions Juri Gatt/Riccardo Schöpf and Thomas Steu/Wolfgang Kindl from Austria. Gold was 0.355 seconds away.
Wendl/Arlt, who were fourth after the first round, benefited from a mistake by sprint world champions Martins Bots/Roberts Plume (Latvia) and secured a place on the podium. Hannes Orlamünder/Paul Gubitz came eighth.
Things went worse for the women, who had already disappointed in the sprint on Friday. Dajana Eitberger and Saskia Schirmer achieved the best result in sixth place.
In this competition, too, the title went to a duo from Austria: Selina Egle and Lara Kipp triumphed ahead of Anda Upite/Zane Kaluma (Latvia) and Chevonne Forgan/Sophie Kirkby (USA).
“We simply fail. That really hurts,” said Eitberger on “ZDF”. In particular, the newly crowned European champions Jessica Degenhardt/Cheyenne Rosenthal, who finished 14th and therefore penultimate in the sprint after major problems with the track, disappointed again with 13th place. Elisa-Marie Storch/Pauline Patz reached twelfth place.
“I’m just disappointed,” said Degenhardt. Rosenthal was already looking ahead to the next events: “Just check the box. We’re still ahead in the World Cup, so we’re attacking.”