By Mitch Phillips
CORTINA D'AMPEZZO, Italy, Feb 10 (Reuters) - Germany's Julia Taubitz won an emphatic Olympic gold in the women's luge singles on Tuesday, cruising home on her fourth run after compatriot Merle Fraebel had a terrible third to drop out of contention having started the day a fraction adrift.
Elina Bota finished second become the first Latvian woman to claim a singles medal in luge, with Ashley Farquharson getting the bronze for the United States.
Taubitz won by nearly a second - a huge
margin in a sport where positions can be decided by thousandths - and continues her country's domination of an event they have now won 13 times out of 17, including the last eight in a row.
In Monday's opening runs Taubitz and Fraebel chalked up three track records between them, with Taubitz carrying a narrow lead, and it looked to be a shoot-out between them for gold.
Taubitz was first out again in Tuesday’s third run and though it was slightly slower, that conservative approach paid immediate dividends when 22-year-old Fraebel followed her out and incredibly bounced off both walls at the start and trundled home as the 20th of 25 athletes, almost a second and a half behind and totally out of contention.
After that it was a battle for the minor medals, with Bota and Farquharson edging Italian duo Verena Hofer and Sandra Robatscher, before Taubitz finished things off with the fastest time, for the third time in four runs.
Taubitz’s win follows that of compatriot Max Langenhan, who took gold in the men's singles on Sunday, and Germany will expect more gold in the two doubles events and the mixed relay.
(Reporting by Mitch Phillips, editing by Clare Fallon and Pritha Sarkar)
