Loch retains Olympic luge title

Sochi: Germany`s Felix Loch retained his Olympic luge singles title at the Sochi Games on Sunday.

The 24-year-old upset Russian Albert Demchenko`s hopes of becoming the oldest ever Olympic individual champion at the age of 42. Loch -- an eight-time world champion, four each in singles and teams -- finished with a combined time of 3min 27.526sec after the four runs. But it still left him one Olympic gold medal short of his coach Georg Hackl, who won three in a row from Albertville in 1992 to Nagano in 1998. Yet Loch insisted he is not trying to compete with Hackl, who also won silvers in Calgary in 1988 and Salt Lake City in 2002. "I try to go my own way and leave my own footprints," he said. Demchenko, the world champion in 2004/05, was 0.476sec behind with double Olympic champion Armin Zoeggler of Italy third at 1.271sec. "It was very difficult, in Russian territory, against Russia and against Armin," added Loch. "I`m so relieved now." Demchenko said he would be a coach by the time the next Olympics comes around but he suggested that Loch was more than merely in a class of his own. "In sliding sports to be winning by four tenths of a second after only three runs is impossible," he said. Demchenko had posted the fastest time in the first run but finished more than three tenths behind Loch in the second, with the German extending his lead over the final two runs. Zoeggler, 40, who won his third bronze having also taken a silver in Nagano, set a record as the first man to win medals in six different Winter Olympics. But he said: "This will definitely be my last."