OBERHOF, Germany: Felix Loch is about to reclaim his title as World Cup luge overall champion.
The two-time Olympic champion from Germany is now virtually assured of claiming the seasonlong mens overall title for the seventh time after dominating yet another race Saturday. He was a quarter-second faster than Austrias Jonas Mueller for the win, his eighth in nine races this season.
Austrias David Gleirscher was third, one spot ahead of Germanys Johannes Ludwig.
Loch now has 855 standings points with three World Cup races left, 290 points ahead of Ludwig with a maximum of 300 points remaining to be claimed this season. Loch basically needs to just finish one of the seasons final races to clinch the points title, no matter what Ludwig does.
Chris Mazdzer was the top American, placing 20th.
In doubles, Austrias Thomas Steu and Lorenz Koller moved closer to clinching the season title by winning Saturday, rallying past the German sled of Tobias Wendl and Tobias Arlt. Latvias Andris Sics and Juris Sics took third.
Steu and Koller now have a 96-point lead over Germanys Toni Eggert and Sascha Benecken with three races left in the overall standings. A German sled either Wendl and Arlt or Eggert and Benecken has won the overall World Cup title in each of the last eight seasons, a streak now in jeopardy.
Steu and Koller would be mathematically certain of winning the title simply by finishing third or better in each of the final three World Cup races.
Mazdzer and Jayson Terdiman were 15th in Saturdays doubles race for the U.S.
The womens race in Oberhof is Sunday.