Madeleine Egle is increasing the heat on rival Julia Taubitz as they battle it out for the women's overall Luge World Cup crown ©Getty Images

Austria’s Madeleine Egle emerged victorious at the International Luge Federation (FIL) World Cup event in Oberhof, cranking up the pressure on German rival Julia Taubitz in the race for the overall title.

Egle saw off Taubitz on the German track to claim her fifth women’s singles victory in the penultimate leg of the season.

The Austrian burst into the lead with a first run time of 41.994sec before clocking 42.080 in the second to secure a winning time of 1:24.074.

Taubitz clocked the quickest second run but was unable to get the better of Egle as she finished second in 1:24.094.

She was joined on the podium by compatriot Anna Berreiter who registered 1:24.339 for third position.

Fellow Germans Olympic champion Natalie Geisenberger and Cheyenne Rosenthal also finished in the top five.

Egle’s victory sees her close the gap on Taubitz to 57 points in the overall standings with one race to go.

Taubitz leads the way on 919, followed by Egle on 862 and Berreiter on 677.

Egle also dashed Germany’s hopes of a hat-trick of victories this weekend after success for Johannes Ludwig in the men’s singles yesterday and Toni Eggert and Sascha Benecken in the doubles today.

Eggert and Benecken proved too strong in both runs as they triumphed in 1:22.651.

They topped a German one-two as Tobias Wendl and Tobias Arlt came second in 1:22.967.

Third place went to the Italian pairing of Emanuel Rieder and Simon Kainzwaldner who clocked 1:23.102.

Latvian brothers Andris and Juris Šics topped the doubles overall rankings on 828 points, with Eggert and Benecken second on 791 and Wendl and Arlt third on 711.

St Moritz in Switzerland is scheduled to stage the final leg of the FIL World Cup from January 22 to 23.

This will also double up as the European Championships.