Huefner wins Germany second luge at Winter Olympics
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Tatjana Huefner, the bronze medallist of Turin Olympics, won Germany the second luge gold in the women's singles at the Vancouver Winter Olympics on Tuesday in a time of 2:46.524 out of four runs.
Austrian Nina Reithmayer was 0.49 seconds behind to lift the silver while Huefner's compatriot Natalie Geisenberger finished third trailing 0.577 seconds.
"I was a bit nervous before my last run but I managed to sleep a little bit and after that I was fine," said Huefner, a keen climber who last year ascended the Matterhorn.
"The start was difficult, especially for us Germans because the start times are our main strength but in the end it was okay. I came here to win and I made it. It's a dream," added the 26-year-old.
Germany dominated the women's luge with three of the top five lugers are of German decent. Geisenberger picked up eight medals in the 2009 World Cup.
Russia's Tatiana Ivanova was ranked fourth ahead of another German Anke Wischnewski.
Having held an overnight lead of 0.05 seconds over the field, Huefner turned the screw on Tuesday's third run with an almost perfect slide to open a 0.268 second lead.
The German clocked a top speed of 134.1kph on the last run to take gold and denied Reithmayer any chance to dethrone the Germany's women dominance on the luge in recent Winter Games.
Reithmayer has the distinction of being the only non-German to claim an Olympic medal in the women's singles luge this century after Germans took gold, silver and bronze at both Salt Lake City in 2002 and Turin four years ago.
Since the country reunified in 1990, Germany has won the men's, women's and doubles titles at Nagano in 1998 and at Calgary in 1988.
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