Canadian Luge Championship: Tyler Seitz Retains Canadian Crown
Tyler Seitz, of Calgary, held on to top spot in Olympic Luge in Canada with his gold medal win today at the Canadian Luge Championship. Seitz is a veteran of the Nagano '98 Olympics and is looking to qualify again to represent Canada at the 2002 Winter Games in Salt Lake City, Utah.Winning Silver in Mens Singles competition was Chris Moffat and top slider at last season's Canadian Junior Championship, Jorgen Krause, once again performed well on the Calgary track with a third place finish against senior athletes.
In Women's competition, Regan Lauscher, formerly of Red Deer, claimed her usual Gold followed by Lindsay Danforth and Jessie Lalonde winning silver and bronze.
The doubles team of Chris Moffat and Eric Pothier edged out their Canadian rivals, Grant Albrecht and Mike Moffat, by six tenths of a second to take the Doubles Gold.
Tops spots in the Mens Open category went to former Olympian Bob Gasper followed by Winston Davis and Tom Landry. Gaining competition experience in the Women's Open category were Megan Simister, Monica Gorham and Caitlin Blundell finishing first, second and third.
Today's Canadian Championship race is the first of two selection races for this season's Junior and Senior World Cup Teams. Final selections to the team will be done following a November 4 race-off in Salt Lake City with the pre-Christmas World Cup Tour team departing for Germany on November 7, 2000.
Being a pre-Olympic year, results at the 2000-2001 World Cup tour races and World Championships, being hosted by Calgary, will determine which athletes will slide at the 2002 Olympics in Salt Lake City. The Canadian Luge Team, under head coach Marie Luise Rainer, hopes to qualify athletes in all Luge categories.
(Note - all athletes reside in Calgary unless noted otherwise)
For more information or if transmission difficulties contact:
Tim Farstad, CLA-OLTC, 403-247-9884
gsnefgnq@pbqn.no.pn