Heavy snow and strong winds made for a tough day at a luge world cup  Saturday in Winterberg, Germany, that saw Jeff Christie turn in Canada's top finish, placing 20th.

Christie edged fellow Calgarian Ian Cockerline, who finished 21st. Sam Edney, also of Calgary, was 30th after the first run, but improved to 24th overall with his second run, clocking the 11th fastest time of the competition.

"That was not performance today, but a 50-50 lottery on whether you hit a wind gust or not and the race should have been cancelled," Wolfgang Staudinger, head coach of the Canadian luge team, said in a statement.

"It was so windy it would just blow you all around the track, but the lucky ones who didn't catch a wind gust made it down quicker."

Italy's Armin Zöggeler won gold, edging Russia's Albert Demtshenko. David Moller won bronze.

In men's doubles racing, Canada's sled of Calgary's Tristan Walker and Justin Snith crashed on their second run and did not finish.

Italy's Christian Oberstolz and Patrick Gruber won the men's doubles race, clocking a time of 1:28.597.

The World Cup continues on Sunday in Germany with the women's singles.