Olympics-Luge-Taubitz and Fraebel vie for another German gold

By Mitch Phillips

CORTINA D'AMPEZZO, Italy, Feb 9 (Reuters) - German duo Julia Taubitz and Merle Fraebel wasted little time in stamping their authority all over the women's luge singles at the Winter Olympics on Monday, both posting track records to sit one and two at the halfway stage, with six hundredths of a second between them.

Germany have won 12 of the 16 available Olympic women's singles golds, including the last seven, and though another looks a to be certainty on Tuesday, who stands on top of the podium remains to be seen.

Taubitz has eight golds and seven silvers across various world championship events and is a five-times overall World Cup winner but has unfinished business when it comes to the Olympics.

Four years ago in Beijing she set a track record with her opening run but had a disastrous crash at the end of her second. She eventually finished seventh and had to watch the German flags hoisted for her teammates Natalie Geisenberger and Anna Berreiter, who took gold and silver.

She was first out of the gate on Monday and was faultless, especially in a charging bottom half, as she posted a track record of 52.638 seconds.

That record lasted only a few minutes, however, as Fraebel got just inside it with 52.590. Fraebel, 22, followed up with 52.659, only for Taubitz to roar back with yet another track record of 52.550 to snatch a halfway lead of 0.061 seconds.

Elina Bota, seeking a first-ever woman's medal for Latvia, set a start record on both her runs to sit third, though almost half a second adrift.

Italy's Verena Hofer, who sacrificed much of the competitive season to get as much practice time as possible on the new Cortina track, used that local knowledge to take a high-risk approach to some of the testing early curves and it paid off as she ended the night fourth.

Fellow Italian Sandra Robatscher also clocked two sub-53 runs to sit sixth.

American Ashley Farquharson and compatriot Emily Fischnaller - wife of Italy's Dominik, the men's bronze medallist on Sunday - both overcame the disadvantage of low-numbered starting positions to sit fifth and eighth respectively.

The third American, Summer Britcher, smashed into a wall right at the start to end her hopes almost before they began. She is 12th, almost a second-and-a-half behind the leader.

Austria's Lisa Schulte, the World Cup leader, had some issues with her start and was a disappointing seventh, two places ahead of Berreiter.

The medals will be decided by runs three and four on Tuesday when Taubitz and Fraebel will hope to follow compatriot Max Langenhan, who took gold in the men's singles on Sunday.