Russia won its second luge silver medal at the World Championships in the German resort of Altenberg on Saturday, after Tatyana Ivanova slid to silver in the women’s singles event.
Germany’s 2010 Olympic champion Tatjana Hufner, 28, won the event with a combined time of 1:44.381 to take her fourth individual world title, with Ivanova just 0.103 seconds behind.
The bronze medal went to 23-year-old German athlete Natalie Geisenberger with a time of 1:44.784.
For Ivanova, the result was a big improvement on her only previous appearance at the world championships, when she finished 11th at Cesana, Italy, in 2010. Unlike Huefner and Geisenberger, Ivanova was forced to qualify for Sunday’s final.
The medal was Russia’s second at the championships, after 40-year-old Albert Demchenko lost out in the men’s singles to Germany’s Felix Loch, 22, who was competing at his home track.
In Saturday’s doubles event, the Austrian pair of brothers Wolfgang and Andreas Linger wo gold, ahead of Germany’s Toni Eggert and Sascha Benecken and Austria’s Peter Penz and Georg Fischler.
The team relay is the only event left at the championships, which finish Sunday.
