Martins Bots and Roberts Plume lead Latvia to dream start at Luge World Championships

BySportsbeat

Published 26/01/2024 at 18:42 GMT

Latvia picked up five medals in the opening day of competition in Altenberg. Martins Bots and Roberts Plume were the headline act as they took sprint men's doubles gold, a time of 27.863s enough to get the better of two Austrian teams: Thomas Steu and Wolfgang Kindl, and Juri Thomas Gatt and Riccardo Martin Schoepf. In the sprint women's doubles, Italians Andrea Voetter and Marion Oberhofer won.

Martins Bots and Roberts Plume of Latvia

Image credit: Getty Images

Latvia enjoyed a fine opening day at the Luge World Championships in Altenberg with five medals in the sprint events.

Martins Bots and Roberts Plume were the headline act as they took sprint men's doubles gold, a time of 27.863s enough to get the better of two Austrian teams: Thomas Steu and Wolfgang Kindl, and Juri Thomas Gatt and Riccardo Martin Schoepf.

In the sprint women's doubles, there were two Latvian teams on the podium, although it was Italian pair Andrea Voetter and Marion Oberhofer who took the win by 0.017 seconds.

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Anda Upite and Zane Kaluma took silver, with Marta Robezniece and Kitija Bogdanova joining their compatriots on the podium in bronze.

Julia Taubitz provided the sole gold medal for the home fans as the German won the sprint women's singles gold, beating Switzerland's Natalie Maag and Elina Ieva Vitola of Latvia.

However, World Cup leader Max Langenhan had to settle for silver in the sprint men's singles, finishing 0.070 seconds behind Austria's David Gleirscher, who took the win.

Kristers Aparjods completed the brilliant day for the Latvians with the bronze medal.

The action in Germany continues on Saturday with the men's singles and the men's and women's doubles.

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