Italy, Germany and Austria claimed Torino 2006 luge gold at Cesana Pariol, while Australia's lone competitor, Hannah Campbell-Pegg, finished the women's event in 23rd place.

The men's and women's champions were both Salt Lake 2002 gold medallists - Italian star Armin Zoeggler and German Sylke Otto - while unheralded Austrian brothers Andreas and Wolfgang Linger out-slid some of the more fancied men's doubles pairings.

Zoeggeler, who had gradually climbed the podium at the previous three Games with bronze at Lillehammer 1994, silver at Nagano 1998 and gold in 2002 - established a 0.158-of-a-second lead over Russian Albert Demtschenko after the first two runs on 11 February (Day 1).

Although Demtschenko pulled back some time over runs three and four on Day 2, he could not catch Zoeggeler, whose total time of 3:26.088 saw him win Italy's first gold of the Games by 0.110 of a second.

Martins Rubenis secured Latvia's first Winter Olympic medal when he nudged out USA slider Tony Benshoof for bronze, thanks to a strong second day.

Olympic legend Georg Hackl of Germany, who started his Olympic career with silver at Calgary 1988, then won three successive gold medals before a second silver in 2002 - failed to perform up to his lofty expectations in his sixth and final Games, finishing 8th.

It was Hannah Campbell-Pegg's turn on the tricky track on Days 3 and 4, and she had to endure lengthy delays on both evenings as sliders ahead of her had bad crashes - six of the 30 starters failed to finish the competition.

Sydney's Campbell-Pegg was undeterred and put down four sub-50-second runs, ending the event with her best time of 49.038 seconds on the fourth run and, despite finishing 9.560 seconds behind the winner, had every reason to feel pleased with her performance after not much more than a season in the sport.

23-year-old Campbell-Pegg, who was originally aiming for the 2010 Vancouver Games, set a goal coming into the competition to make four clear runs - a feat she achieved with ease.

"I have learnt that I can do this," she said.

"It's more about self belief for me now. I was nervous with the long delays and just calmed myself down and refocussed."

Otto led yet another German sweep of the women's luge medals, taking gold with a combined time of 3:07.979, 0.136 of a second ahead of Silke Kraushaar - taking a step up from bronze at Salt Lake - with bronze medallist Tatjana Hueffner 0.481 off the pace.

Like Rubenis in the men's singles, the Linger brothers produced their best performance at the right time, as some of the contenders struggled in the men's doubles competition on 15 February (Day 5).

The top two pairs on the World Cup standings, Germans Alexander Resch and Patric Leitner - also the 2002 Olympic gold medallists - and Italians Patrick Gruber and Christian Oberstolz, were disappointing, finishing 6th and 5th, respectively.

Salt Lake silver medallists Mark Grimmette and Brian Martin of the USA joined a long list of sliders to crash out, with most competitors pointing the finger at the Italian organisers for not giving them greater access to the track to train and become accustomed to its turns.

The Lingers, however, had no such trouble and belied their 6th placing on the just-completed World Cup standings with two outstanding runs for a total time of 1:34.497, a clear 0.310 of a second ahead of German pair Andre Florschuetz and Torsten Wustlich.

Italians Gerhard Plankensteiner and Oswald Haselrieder snared the bronze.

Murray Brust / AOC