Canadian Lugers Post Strong World Cup Results
The friendly sibling and team mate rivalry between Canada's two doubles luge teams continued today with the team of Chris Moffat and Eric Pothier (Airdrie, Alberta) edging out Grant Albrecht and Mike Moffat by a mere five one hundreths of a second. Moffat/Pothier's 12th place finish at World Cup Three was a drop from last weekend's sixth place finish at Oberhof however Albrecht/Moffat moved up from 20th place at World Cup Two to 13th place at today's race. Both Albrecht (age 19) and Moffat (age 18) are Juniors sliding on the Senior World Cup circuit.Chris Moffat and Eric Pothier need just one more doubles finish in the top nine to qualify for the 2002 Olympic Winter Games. Grant Albrecht and Mike Moffat have one out of the four qualifying finishes to meet the required Canadian Olympic Association criteria for luge.
On the podium in doubles competition were Leitner/Resch (Germany), Florschutz/Wustlich (Germany) and Grimmette/Martin (USA) winning gold, silver and bronze respectively.
In Women's competition, Canada's Regan Lauscher (Red Deer, Alberta) finished 20th in the field of 35 sliders. The strong German womens team once again swept the medals with Silke Krauschaar, Sylke Otto and Barbara Niedernhuger finishing first, second and third.
In Junior World Cup competition in Konigssee, Germany, Ryan Paton put Canada in the top 10 in Junior II (under age 20) competition with a seventh place finish and Sam Edney also posted a personal best seventh place finish in Junior I (under age 18) . Paton was in fourth spot after the first run however rapidly deteriorating weather and ice conditions, along with a poor start on his second run put him out of medal contention. Ian Cockerline, who won Junior I Silver at last week's Junior World Cup in Igls, Austria, also posted a fourth place first run but struggled on his second run to finish 20th. Also sliding for Canada in the Junior II category was Jorgen Krause who finished 14th.
Coach of the Junior National Team, Andre Benoit, reported, "Our Junior Men all slid extremely well today however the frost build up on the ice and poor visibility, which had them sliding blind on some portions of the track, made it difficult for the last sleds to improve their times on the final run."
All Canadian athletes are from Calgary unlesss otherwise noted.
For more information or if transmission difficulties contact:
Tim Farstad, CLA-OLTC, 403-247-9884 tfarstad@coda.ab.ca
Web site: www.luge.ca