Canada’s Kim McRae seventh at Luge World Cup; Alex Gough 10th

WINTERBERG, Germany – Canada’s Kim McRae finished seventh on a tricky track on Sunday at a luge World Cup event.

The Calgary-based Olympian battled the world’s best on the challenging 1,293-metre decent,to finish in one minute 43.120 seconds. The result was one spot below her previous best she chalked up last year.

“Overall today was a bit rough. We had some crazy weather to contend with, but that is Winterberg,” said the 25-year-old McRae. “I am very happy with a seventh place finish, but it could have been even better.”

McRae will be looking for precious seconds to close the gap created by the two German stars of the World Cup circuit. Natalie Geisenberger was the fastest athlete in both runs, winning with a time of 1:53.484. Fellow German, Tatjana Huefner, slid to the silver medal at 1:53.832.

American Summer Britcher rounded out the women’s podium in third at 1:53.893, while her teammate and Olympic medallist, Erin Hamlin, placed fourth at 1:54.042.

It was a difficult day for the leader of the Canadian women’s program, Alex Gough, on a track she has twice reached the podium. The 30-year-old Gough clocked in at 1:54.405 to secure the final spot in the top-10.

Also Sunday, Germany picked up another gold when Felix Loch won the men’s sprint. Semen Pavlichenko of Russia was second and Nico Gleirscher of Austria was third.

And in the doubles sprint, Germany — just as it did in the full doubles race Saturday — swept the medals. Tobias Wendl and Tobias Arlt took gold, Toni Eggert and Sascha Benecken won silver and Robin Johannes Geueke and David Gamm got the bronze. Matt Mortensen and Jayson Terdiman of the U.S. were fourth, just 0.014 seconds away from a podium finish.

The next luge World Cup is in Altenberg, Germany, next week before returning to Calgary for a series of races at Winsport’s Canada Olympic Park, Dec. 8-9.

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With files from The Associated Press