Canadian Doubles Best Ever World Cup Results
C.Moffat/Pothier Sixth Place Finish
The Canadian Doubles Luge Team of Chris Moffat and Eric Pothier (Airdrie, Alberta) had their best ever World Cup finish with a sixth place time of 1:25.031 - just four tenths of a second from the medal podium. Today's results at the World Cup 2 race in Oberhof, Germany put Moffat and Pothier just one more top nine finish away from qualifying for the Salt Lake City Winter Olympics.Eric Pothier, age 21 from Airdrie, Alberta, commented following the race about their performance, " Chris and I put everything together on one of our favorite tracks to have our best ever finish in a World Cup. We have now have three Olympic qualifying finishes and just one to go."
Medal winners in Doubles competition were Steffen Skel and Seffen Woller of Germany (1:23.991); Andre Florschutz and Torsten Wustlich also of Germany (1:24.081) followed by Bronze medalists Christian Oberstolz and Patrick Gruber (1:24.585) of Italy.
The other Canadian doubles team of Grant Albrecht and Mike Moffat were out of the running in 20th place after experiencing problems on their first run.
In Women's competition, Canada's Regan Lauscher (age 20 from Red Deer) had a disappointing 15th place finish against the usual tough field of European and American sliders. "Not much to say today," reported Lauscher, "I just need to relax more on my first run and be prepared to risk it all." Lauscher needs four finishes in the top 14 to qualify for Salt Lake and has missed by just one position in the past two World Cups. Germany's Sylke Otto (1:24.123) and Silke Kraushaar (1:24.216) won Gold and Silver followed by Austria's Angelika Neuner winning Bronze with a time of 1:24.459.
Men's singles competition will run on December 3rd in Oberhof.
All Canadia athletes noted above are from Calgary unless otherwise noted. Full results for the Viessmann World Cup 2 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