Wendl, Arlt lead German sweep in luge doubles for Euro title

KOENIGSSEE, Germany (AP) Olympic champions Tobias Wendl and Tobias Arlt led a German sweep for the European luge title and their second World Cup doubles win of the season on Thursday.

Wendl and Arlt were second on their home track behind World Cup leaders Toni Eggert and Sascha Benecken after the first run but fastest in the second to win by seven hundredths of a second with a combined time of 1 minute, 41.575 seconds.

Robin Johannes Geueke and David Gamm were third, 0.782 behind, ahead of Austrian pair Thomas Steu and Lorenz Koller.

Eggert and Benecken lead the overall standings after seven of 12 races with 655 points. Wendl and Arlt are next with 567 points.

Olympic champion Natalie Geisenberger continued the German success on her home track by winning the women's race and European title.

The competition was ended early because of heavy snowfall. Geisenberger's first-run time of 51.178 was enough to beat Tatyana Ivanova of Russia by 0.151.

''I would love to have had a second run, but there's nothing we can do when the weather is like that,'' Geisenberger said. ''But at the end of the day, a European title is a European title.''

Another German, Tatjana Huefner, was third, 0.255 behind.

USA Luge had two sliders in the top 10 of the women's race, with Emily Sweeney finishing eighth and two spots ahead of Erin Hamlin.

''It was pretty interesting race,'' Sweeney said. ''They stopped the race ... because it was whiteout conditions here, so the athletes couldn't really see coming out of some of the curves.''

Sweeney will not race in Friday's team relay because of ongoing recovery from a wrist injury, and Hamlin will take her spot.

Geisenberger overtook Huefner in the overall standings and was leading by 12 points after seven races.