CORTINA D'AMPEZZO, Italy, Feb 8 (Reuters) - 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, who won bronze four years ago, repeating his third place.
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 was first out of the gate again in the third run on Sunday and was even better with a massive third track record of 52.705.
Former world champion Mueller was also impressive with another sub-53 time and a start record in his third run 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.
Having won the World Championship title in the last two years, Langenhan has again timed his season brilliantly to peak when it matters most. He is currently third in the World Cup rankings, without winning any of the seven races but consistently on the podium.
Germany’s current World Cup leader 2010 and 2014 Olympic champion Felix Loch had been a surprise eighth overnight. He climbed to sixth on Sunday but, despite his disappointment, was among the first to hug Langenhan as he climbed off his sled.
There were also emotional scenes after Fischnaller came home assured of a medal.
The Italian, who has been on the new Cortina track at every opportunity this season, was third overnight after two smooth runs and was again consistent in the second half of the competition.
He clocked his fastest time of the week in his third run and was good again in his fourth, finishing almost a second off the pace but, crucially, comfortably clear of Latvia's Kristers Aparjods in fourth.
Fischnaller climbed off to a roar from the home fans and was hugged by team officials and his wife Emily, who will race in the women's singles for the United States on Monday.
Germany, in their various guises, have now won 12 of the 17 men's singles golds available since luge joined the Olympics in 1964.
They will hope and expect to add to their luge tally on Monday when Julia Taubitz is the hot favourite to earn the country an incredible eighth successive win in the women’s singles.
(Reporting by Mitch Phillips, editing by Toby Davis)
