By Nick Butler

Elena Meyers Taylor and Lauren Williams were on dominant form in Igls ©FIBTElena Meyers Taylor and Lauryn Williams secured a fifth International Bobsleigh and Skeleton Federation (FIBT) World Cup victory of the season, overturning a first run deficit to triumph in Igls, Austria.


The United States pairing, who also lead the overall World Cup standings, were 0.06 seconds behind second-placed German pairing Anja Schneiderheinze and Annika Drazek after the opening heat.

But a storming second run proved crucial as they triumphed by a minuscule 0.07 seconds overall.

"That was close," said Meyers-Taylor, who won an Olympic silver medal with London 2012 4x100m relay athletics champion Williams in Sochi.

"Anja is a great pilot and Annika pushes crazy fast.

"The rest of the season will still be an exciting duel."

The American leads Schneiderheinze by 104 points in the overall standings while Sochi 2014 champion Kaillie Humphries of Canada, who finished sixth in Igls, is 177 points back in third.

Francesco Friedrich continued his dominant recent form in the men's event ©AFP/Getty ImagesFrancesco Friedrich continued his dominant recent form in the men's event
©AFP/Getty Images


But there was a victory for Germany in the men's event as Francesco Friedrich teamed up with Thorsten Margis to follow his victory last week in La Plagne.

The duo posted the fastest time in each of their two runs to finish 0.31 seconds ahead of overall World Cup leader Oskars Melbardis of Latvia, and his pusher Daumants Dreiskens.

Beat Hefti and Alex Baumann of Switzerland placed third.

The Latvian leads Hefti and Friedrich by 38 and 45 points respectively ahead of next week's finale in Sochi and, with a win worth 225 points, there is all the play for.

Action continues in Igls with male and female skeleton competitions tomorrow.

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