Sigulda (RWH) One duo has been together since their youngest years, the other duo is still young in years. One has always been inseparable, the other lives miles apart. The former have been the high-fliers of the last few years, for the latter a hobby flyer sets the pace. We’re talking of Tobias Wendl and Tobias Arlt versus Toni Egger, who has an official flight lisence, and Sascha Benecken: an ongoing German duel in the doubles this post-Olympic winter. “We’re only rivals on the ice track,” says Sascha Benecken, who began the season together with pilot Toni Eggert with four victories in the Viessmann World Cup. It was only then that the winners of the two previous seasons, Wendl-Arlt, countered with three victories in succession. Since then, each of the duos has won one victory each: anyone hoping for gold at the 45th World Championships organized by the International Luge Federation (FIL) will have to pass the two German duos. The winner will be decided on February 14, 2015, with the first run starting at 10:10 am local time, and the second at 11:30 am. Wendl-Arlt have been the more successful luge team in the past, with Olympic gold in 2014, World Championship gold in 2013, and two overall victories in the Viessmann World Cup. Eggert-Benecken have always been overshadowed by Bavaria’s golden boys, although they have taken European Championship gold (2012) and bronze, two World Championship silvers, and two second places in the overall World Cup rankings. But the duo left the Olympics empty-handed. Toni Eggert followed his heart and moved to Berchtesgaden in the spring of 2014. Since then the doubles duo, who only came together at the behest of their coaches five years ago, have trained apart and won together. When Eggert-Benecken collected their first national championship title shortly before Christmas, they were almost a second faster than Wendl-Arlt. “It gets you thinking,” Tobias Arlt admitted later quite openly. Their material development had “taken a wrong turn,” he added. Once that realization had been tackled “in a lot of night shifts” (Wendl), the duo started racing back to the top. Fortune was on their side at the race on their home track in Königssee, because Eggert-Benecken made a mess of their exit out of the circular Kreisel curve. And they weren’t perfect in Oberhof, either. The show-down is set for the World Championships in Sigulda. Third place behind the rivals in the World Championships could go to Andris and Juris Šics. The Latvian brothers already have three Olympic medals (silver in 2010 and two bronzes in 2014), more than any other Latvian has ever won at a Winter Games. And the advantage of racing on a home track will be on their side. Austria’s Peter Penz and Georg Fischler, the jewel in the Austrian crown since the retirement of two-time Olympic Champions Andreas and Wolfgang Linger, also feel at home in Sigulda. The Tyrolean athletes feel themselves to be just as good as the German competition when it comes to speed, but they’re still making too many mistakes. And it will also be worth looking out for the Russian doubles teams, who are always good for a surprise. Alexandr Denisyev and Vladislav Antonov came third in Oberhof and Lillehammer, and Vladislav Yuzhakov and Valdimir Prokhorov were second at the opening race of the season in Innsbruck-Igls.