Canada's Matt McMurray Gets Rough Ride During Senior Luge World Cup Debut
-Next stop is at home in Calgary for the
The 19-year-old from Calgary, who qualified to compete in the World Cup A race by beating out over 30 international competitors, suffered a crash in the bottom section of a technical Altenberg track.
Canadian head Coach, Walter Corey, is positive about the young athlete's performance, and recognizes the value of top-level competition.
"Anytime an athlete this young can qualify for an A race and compete with the best in the world, on one of the most difficult tracks, it's a step in the right direction for him," said Corey. "Matt was running well before his crash and you can bet that he'll learn from what mistakes he made today."
Italy's Armin Zögeller claimed his second gold medal of the 03-04 season, posting a two-run time of 1:49.447. He was followed in second place by Austrian Markus Kleinheinz in a time of 1:49.634. North America was represented on the podium by third place finisher Tony Benshoof from the United States, who recorded a personal best and new track record on the way to a total time of 1:49.651.
The Canadian Luge Team will continue to Konigsee, Germany for a week of training before coming home to Calgary for the lone Canadian stop on the Viessmann Luge World Cup circuit, December 5-6, 2003.
"This young team is starting to see a chance for itself to get much better in a short amount of time as they compete against the best in the world," said Corey. "We're in for a hard week of training in Germany before coming home to race in front of a home crowd on a track that is well suited to our team."
MEN'S FINAL RESULTS
| Rank | Country | Name | Time |
| 1 | Italy | Armin Zöggeler | 1:49.447 |
| 2 | Austria | Markus Kleinheinz | 1:49.634 |
| 3 | USA | Tony Benshoof | 1:49.651 |
| 4 | Austria | Rainer Margreiter | 1:49.691 |
| 5 | Germany | Jan Eichhorn | 1:49.761 |
| 6 | Germany | Dennis Geppert | 1:49.768 |
| 7 | Russia | Albert Demtschenko | 1:49.803 |
| 8 | Austria | Martin Abentung | 1:49.808 |
| 9 | Italy | Wilfried Huber | 1:49.878 |
| 10 | Germany | Georg Hackl | 1:49.949 |
| DNF | Canada | Matt McMurray | N/A |
The Canadian Luge Associaton is the governing body for luge racing in Canada. In partnership with CODA, the Canadian Luge Association operates the Olympic Luge Training Centre at Canada Olympic Park in Calgary, which develops our nation's high-performance luge athletes and promotes the sport across the country. For more information on the Canadian Luge Association, please visit us at www.luge.ca on the Internet.