Canadian Luge Team Results World Cup 1
Sigulda, Latvia - Women Singles and Men's Doubles
Canada's Senior Luge Team started this season's World Cup circuit with some fast times as they steadily climb higher in world standings. Women singles and Men's Doubles competition was completed this morning at the Viessmann World Cup 1 Race in Sigulda, Latvia.Red Deer's Regan Lauscher finished 14th in the field of 35 competitors with a two-run combined time of 1:28.375. Germany's Silke Kraushaar won Gold with a time of 1:26.341 followed by teammate Sylke Otto (1:26.538) and Austria's Angelika Neuner (1:26.810) winning bronze. Twenty year old Lauscher is Canada's lone women slider on the senior luge circuit and is in just her first season as a senior athlete (over age 19). She finished last season as a junior athlete sliding to a 29th place finish at the Senior World Championships. Moving up to 14th place at the first race of the 2000/2001 season is an excellent start to this Olympic qualifying season for Regan.
In Men's Doubles, Chris Moffat and Eric Pothier (Airdrie, Alberta) made the top ten with their 10th place time of 1:27.450. Chris' younger brother, Mike Moffat, and his partner Grant Albrecht were just two tenths of a second behind at 1:27.630 which was good enough for 13th position in the field of 24 international racers. Germans Steffen Skel and Steffen Woller won Gold with a time of 1:26.279 followed by fellow German's Sebastian Schmidt and Andre Forker (1:26.445) and USA's Mark Grimmette and Brian Martin (1:26.492).
Men's singles competition will run November 26. Meanwhile, Canada's Junior Luge Team has just finished two weeks of training in Lillehammer, Norway and Oberhof, Germany. They are now in Igls, Austria, preparing for next week's inaugural Junior World Cup race of this season.
All Canadia athletes noted above are from Calgary unless otherwise noted. Full results for the Viessmann World Cup 1 can be found at www.fil-luge.org and Canadian team photos, results and biographical information can be found at www.luge.ca.
For more information or if transmission difficulties contact:
Tim Farstad, CLA-OLTC, 403-247-9884 tfarstad@coda.ab.ca
Web site: www.luge.ca