Canada's Jeff Christie Cracks Top-25 at Luge World Cup
-Russia's Albert Demtschenko captures third victory of seas
The 21-year-old battled pouring rain to finish just over a second off the leader in an extremely tight race for a combined time of one minute 37.122 seconds. Christie posted runs at 48.708 and 48.414 respectively.
"It wasn't my best race, but I can't be disappointed because the times were so close and I improved my position on the Konigssee track over last year," said Christie, who is currently 16th overall in World Cup standings. "I'm learning as each race goes, and I'm maintaining pace with the best in the world."
The Calgary native, who equaled his best ever result in men's singles racing on the Luge World Cup this past December in Calgary posting a 12th-place finish, was the lone Canadian competitor in Thursday's race.
"Today's race didn't hurt me in the overall standings as much as I thought it would, but I definitely need to improve in the next three races as they will determine the seeding for the World Championships in Salt Lake City."
Russia's Albert Demtschenko, who is currently leading in overall World Cup standings, captured top spot on the podium with a two-run combined time of 1:35:675. The legendary Georg Hackl of Germany slid mere fractions of a second off the pace to finish in second place with 1:35:682, while teammate David Möller rounded out the top three at 1:36:005.
There were 29 sleds in today's competition.
The World Cup will continue in Igls, Austria, January 14-15, 2005.
The Canadian Luge Associaton is the governing body for luge racing in Canada. In partnership with CODA, the Canadian Luge Association operates the Olympic Luge Training Centre at Canada Olympic Park in Calgary, which develops our nation's high-performance luge athletes and promotes the sport across the country. For more information on the Canadian Luge Association, please visit us at www.luge.ca on the Internet.
COMPLETE TEAM RESULTS: www.fil-luge.org
Top-Five Men's Results:
1. Albert Demtschenko, RUS, 1:35:675; 2. Georg Hackl, GER, 1:35:682; 3. David Möller, GER, 1:36:005; 4. Stefan Höhener, SUI, 1:36:273; 5. Viktor Kneib, RUS, 1:36:288.
Canadian Results:
23. Jeff Christie, Vancouver, CAN, 1:37:122.