Rzhanaya Polyana, Russia (SportsNetwork.com) - The German team of Tobias Wendl and Tobias Arlt set a track record on Tuesday and entered the second run of the luge doubles competition in first place at the Sanki Sliding Center.
The Germans were the fourth team to go off in Run 1, as they broke the track record with a time of 49.373 seconds. That topped the mark that had been set just two runs earlier by Austrian brothers Andreas and Wolfgang Linger.
The Lingers, of course, are vying for their third consecutive Olympic luge doubles title and seemed on their way with a then-record time of 49.685 seconds only to see Wendl and Arlt improve upon that by .312 seconds.
Another Austrian team of Peter Pens and Georg Fischler had the third best time at 49.793 seconds.
Tristan Walker and Justin Snith of Canada were fourth at 49.857 seconds.
The top U.S. team was Christian Niccum and Jayson Terdiman, who finished in 11th place after the first run, 0.981 seconds behind the leaders.
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