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CALGARY, Alberta (AP) — Erin Hamlin and Summer Britcher of the U.S. finished second and third in women's World Cup luge Friday.
Natalie Geisenberger of Germany won the event. The gold medalist had runs times of 46.818 and 46.751 seconds for a combined 1 minute, 33.569 seconds.
Geisenberger clapped her hand on her head and whooped for joy when Hamlin crossed the line .012 seconds slower than her. Britcher, the winner last week in Park City, Utah, was third .143 behind the German.
"Erin and I keep passing the yellow bib back and forth, from race to race. That's incredibly exciting," Britcher said. "Hopefully it'll switch back again tomorrow, but she's definitely the No. 1 person I want to be second to."
Hamlin, who won the second World Cup race of the season in Lake Placid, N.Y., led the overall World Cup standings with 401 points. Britcher is in second with 395 and Geisenberger is third with 365.
"Today was an awesome race. It was really, really close," Hamlin said. "Everyone that was at the top backed up their run so the pressure was on. I had some mistakes in my first run, so I knew I could make up some time. Unfortunately I had some mistakes in my second run as well, but they were at the top so I really just let the sled run for the rest of my run."
Hamlin became the first North American woman to win an Olympic luge medal when she finished third ahead of Alex Gough in fourth and Kim McRae fifth in Sochi, Russia, in 2014.
With 13 World Cup medals so far, USA Luge has tied its single-season best set in 1996-97 and 2014-15.
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