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Olympic upset

February 18, 2010

German hopes of sweeping the luge medals at the Olympics in Vancouver were dashed by a third-place finish in the men's double luge.

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Patric Leitner, left, and Alexander Resch of Germany celebrate after the men's doubles luge competition at the Vancouver 2010 Olympics in Whistler, British Columbia.
A disappointing third place finish for Resch and LeitnerImage: AP

At the winter Olympics in Vancouver, Germany took the bronze medal in the men's double luge competition on Wednesday. Patric Leitner and Alexander Resch, who won the event in 2002, came in third, behind gold medal winners Austria and second-place Latvia.

Leitner and Resch were less than a tenth of a second away from silver after a storming second run lifted them up from fifth place. But they couldn't top Austrian brothers Andreas and Wolfgang Linger, who took the gold medal with a winning margin of 0.264 seconds.

"It's just great to win four years after Turin," 28-year-old Andreas Lingner told reporters. "There was a lot of pressure to come here as reigning champions," he added.

The Lingers' are the first team to win consecutive Olympic gold medals in luge doubles since Germans Hans Rinn and Hans Brandner in 1980.

Leitner and Resch's third-place finish wrecked German hopes of sweeping the luge medals, which they were on track to win after Felix Loch won men's singles and Tatjana Huefner took the women's singles.

smh/DPA/AFP/Reuters

Editor: Nancy Isenson

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