Max Langenhan storms to maiden World Championship title in front of home crowd

Home hero Max Langenhan clinched his first luge World Championship title in commanding fashion in Altenberg, Germany.

The 24-year-old stormed into the lead with an overall time of 1:47.813 seconds to clinch gold in front of a home crowd by three quarters of a second.

Langenhan had grabbed silver in the men’s sprint the previous day but went one step further and produced a brilliant second run of 53.870 to seal the title.

“It’s unbelievable,” he said. “I was unsure before the second run because all the other guys had already lost ground, so I thought I had to have a perfect run. I’m super happy that I did.”

Austria’s Nico Gleirscher was 0.761 seconds behind for silver, whilst 14-time World Champion Felix Loch grabbed bronze for his first individual world medal in three years.

Selina Egle and Lara Kipp’s consistency saw them crowned women’s doubles world champions in Altenberg.

The Austrian duo roared back onto the podium after a disappointing outing in the sprint race the previous day, with two solid runs to take the title over Latvia’s Anda Upite and Zane Kaluma and the USA’s Chevonne Forgan and Sophia Kirkby.

The Latvian pair opened the competition with a track record of 42.334 seconds, whilst the USA equalled the mark on their second run.

But neither teams record-breaking attempts were enough to beat out Egle and Kipp, who won in a time of 1:24.761 seconds.

Kipp said: “It was a hard fought title. Our advantage were the two consistently fast runs.”

It was an Austrian one-two in the men’s doubles as Juri Gatt and Riccardo Schoepf sealed the title of world champions in a straight fight against their compatriots.

The pair, who won bronze in the sprint event the day before, narrowly beat their team-mates Thomas Steu and Wolfgang Kindl to gold in a combined time of 1:22.924 seconds.

Leading after the first run, Steu and Kindl claimed the fastest time second time round but had too much to do and couldn’t catch their counterparts.

Germany’s Tobias Wendl and Tobias Arlt rounded off the podium with World bronze.