Defending champions Andreas and Wolfgang Linger prevented a clean sweep of German luge golds as they won the doubles competition at the Vancouver Winter Olympics on Wednesday.

The Linger brothers won both runs at the Whistler Sliding Centre, timing a combined one minute and 22.705 seconds from two runs, 0.264 seconds ahead of Latvia's Andris and Juris Sics.

The Austrians haven't enjoyed their best World Cup season, collecting just one gold in Lillehammer in December.

With Germany's Felix Loch and Tatjana Hufner having claimed the individual titles earlier in the week, Germany's World Cup champions Andre Florschutz and Torsten Wustlich were tipped as favorite for the gold.

But the Lingers, who won their solitary world title in 2003, showed no regard for reputation and after winning the first run by 0.088, romped home in their second run to become the second pairing in history to defend the Olympic doubles title.

Latvia's Sics brothers haven't ever finished on the World Cup podium but excelled in their first run to lie second and maintained their advantage in their final run for a shock silver.

Italy's former European champions Christian Oberstolz and Patrick Gruber were third after the first run but couldn't hold off 2002 Olympic champions Patric Leitner and Alexander Resch with their second effort and the Germans finished 0.071 behind the Latvians for the bronze.

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