Lake Placid (pps). Felix Loch prevented a historical trough for the German luge team. Loch, 2008 in Oberhof (GER) youngest World Champion ever, defended his title at the FIL Luge World Championships in Lake Placid (USA). With that the 19-year-old won the only Gold medal for his team because the World titles at double and women went to Italy with Gerhard Plankensteiner/Oswald Haselrieder and host USA with Erin Hamlin. The last World Championships without a title for a German luge athlete in the Olympic disciplines men, women and double were 1978 in Imst (Austria).
Felix Loch won his second World title with track record in first run (51,939 seconds) and a total time of one minute 44,336 seconds, followed by two-time Olympic Champion Armin Zöggeler (ITA, one minute 44.549 seconds) with Silver. The Bronze medal went to Austria’s Daniel Pfister (one minute 45.037 seconds).
Best athlete of the US-team was Bengt Walden (one minute 45.242 seconds) on rank six.
