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Canada's Walker, Snith earn bronze in doubles luge at World Cup stop

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LAKE PLACID, N.Y. — Canadian lugers Tristan Walker and Justin Snith earned their first medals of the World Cup season after finishing third in doubles competition Friday.

Calgary's Snith and Walker, from Cochrane, Alta., were fourth after the first run, but climbed into third after a mistake-free second run to finish with a combined time of one minute 27.683 seconds.

"Having two consistent runs and getting on the podium is something that has been few and far between for us a few years," said Walker. "It feels really good, especially to do it in Lake Placid."

Building on a reset in Calgary after a dismal start to the season in Europe where the focus was put on the process and not the results, the Canadians responded once again with the third-fastest time in the second run to grab the final spot on the podium with a time of 1:27.683.

Snith ant Walker captured their third career doubles podium, but first since 2015.

"This was a really good day. It's been a frustrating three years since we've been on the podium. We know we can do it if we are consistent, but just haven't been able to put two runs together and get it done," said Snith, who along with Walker was fourth in doubles at the 2014 Olympics.

German lugers Toni Eggert and Sascha Benecken finished first, extending their series lead and further cementing themselves as the Olympic favourites.

Peter Penz and Georg Fischler of Austria were second.

Eggert and Benecken finished more than six-tenths of a second ahead of Penz and Fischler. The margin between the first and second sleds in the race was actually wider than the margin between the second- and 10th-place sleds.

Matt Mortensen and Jayson Terdiman were the top American sled, finishing fifth. They were exactly one second behind Eggert and Benecken, who now have a 154-point lead over countrymen Tobias Wendl and Tobias Arlt in the overall standings.

— With files from The Associated Press

The Canadian Press


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