Alex Gough Makes No Excuses for Fifth at Winterberg World Cup

WINTERBERG, Ger.—Alex Gough finished as the top Canadian in fifth spot at the Luge World Cup in Winterberg, Germany on Sunday.

Battling through the dog days of winter – five straight weeks on the road – Calgary’s Gough dug deep to clock a fifth-place time of 1:54.721 on the 15-corner track in Winterberg.

“It was a disappointing day. I didn’t have the race I wanted too,” said Gough, who added slow starts and a few mistakes cost her a podium today. “It was a tough week of training for me. I tried to step it up on race day, but it didn’t work out the way I wanted to. I just didn’t have a very good day today. That happens – it is racing!”

While not the podium it was a near perfect day for Canada’s Arianne Jones. The 24-year-old Calgarian, who slid to her first World Cup medal prior to Christmas with a third-place finish in Calgary, Jones nearly matched her career-best result in Europe after finishing seventh at 1:54.837.

Calgary’s Kim McRae rounded out the Canadian contingent in 11th at 1:55.132.

The Germans swept the women’s podium. Natalie Geisenberger won with a time of 1:53.829. Dajana Eitberger was second at 1:54.024, and Anke Wischnewski grabbed the bronze at 1:54.171.

Gough and her Canadian mates are anxious now to follow the World Cup to Lillehammer, Norway.

“The first two weeks we were in Konigssee which is our home-away-from home and a great atmosphere. Oberhof is a struggle for us as we don’t have much experience there and then this track in Winterberg is built for bobsleigh and doesn’t translate well for luge. Not to make excuse at all. We need to step up to the plate and I didn’t do that this week, but it will be nice to get our of Germany on different tracks where things will even out a little bit for the field.”

The Canadian Luge Association is a not-for-profit organization responsible for governing the sport of luge across the country. With the financial backing of from the Government of Canada, Canadian Olympic Committee and Own the Podium, the Canadian Luge Association safely recruits and develops the nation’s current and future high-performance luge athletes with the goal of regularly climbing onto the international podium. For more information on the Canadian Luge Association, please visit us at www.luge.ca on the Internet.

COMPLETE RESULTS: www.fil-luge.org

Women’s Top-Five and Canadian Results:

1.Natalie Geisenberger, GER, 1:53.829; 2. Dajana Eitberger, GER, 1:54.024; 3. Anke Wischnewski, GER, 1:54.171; 4. Britcher Summer, USA, 1:54.450; 5. Alex Gough, Calgary, CAN, 1:54.721

Canadian Results:

7. Arianne Jones, Calgary, 1:54.837; 11. Kim McRae, Calgary, 1:55.132