Day One of the Fourth Viessmann World Cup
For the second time in four days, Canada's Olympic Luge team is facing off against the best in the world at the 4th Viessmann World Cup in Ingls, Austria.The doubles' event, held earlier this morning, was won by the Austrian duo of Tobias and Markus Schiegl in a time of 1:20.874. They were joined on the podium by the German teams of Patric Leitner and Alexander Resch and Steffen Skel and Steffen Wöller.
The Canadian pair of Grant Albrecht and Mike Moffat turned in a blistering 5th place time in the second heat, moving from 14th at the end of their first run, to 9th place over all.
"Despite the fact that our second run was very good, we are obviously disappointed that we couldn't turn in two good runs. We are running out of races to prove what we can do," said Albrecht.
"Consistency continues to be a problem for us, and it's very frustrating not being able to get two good runs in a row. However, I am confident that we will get this under control and be able to deliver when the time comes," added Albrecht's partner Mike Moffat.
The other Canadian pair of Chris Moffat and Eric Pothier finished 12th with a time of 1:21.615.
"I was disappointed with today's race," stated Chris. "Not only did our mistakes cost us in this race, they also knocked us out of the top ten in over all World Cup standings."
"We were looking to move up on the second run but we missed our chance on the start so all in all, it has been a disappointing race," added Airdrie's Eric Pothier.
In the women's event, the podium at Ingls was a carbon copy of last Saturday's World Cup in Koenigssee, Germany, with Silke Kraushaar, Sylke Otto and Barbara Niedernhuber, all of Germany, taking gold, silver and bronze respectively. Canada's Regan Lauscher finished 14th, 1.078 seconds off the gold medal pace.
"I am not happy with this result," said the young Red Deer athlete. "I had been doing very well in training, and the mistake I made on my second run should simply not have happened."
Source: Jennifer Pashniak, CLA
Tim Farstad, CLA-OLTC, 403-247-9884 or tfarstad@coda.ab.ca