Canada places third in luge team relay
CTVOlympics.caPosted Sunday, January 3, 2010
Canadian lugers Alex Gough, Sam Edney and brothers Chris Moffat and Mike Moffat placed third in the team relay event contested during the luge World Cup stop in Königssee, Germany on Sunday.
Gough, Edney and the Moffats, all from Calgary, Alta., finished 0.775 seconds behind the winning German team of Tatjana Hüfner, Felix Loch and Tobias Wendl/Tobias Arlt. Second place went to Austria (Nina Reithmayer, Daniel Pfister and Andreas Linger/Wolfgang Linger), who were 0.649 back.
Gough's individual effort, a two-run combined time of 51.350, was actually the best time of all the women in the relay event.
In the overall team relay standings, Canada is still in the lead with 240 points followed by Austria (225) and Germany (200). This was the third of five Tiscover Team Relay events that will be contested this season. Canada won the first relay and placed third in the second.
"We had another good performance in the relay and our times were right there with the leading nations where we need to be,' said Canadian coach Wolfgang Staudinger.
The team competition, which is not contested in the Olympics, consists of a female, a male and a doubles team, who each complete one run for a combined final time. The race is run as a relay with athletes hitting a pad at the finish, which in turn opens the start gate for the next team member.
Earlier Sunday, in the men's competition, Russia's Albert Demtschenko broke the track record in both runs to win the race ahead of two-time Olympic champion Armin Zöggeler of Italy.
Demtschenko finished in 1: 34.176 for the two runs to win his second World Cup event of the season.
Zoeggeler was .373 seconds behind, with David Moeller of Germany trailing .464 in third on the oldest track in the world. Canada's Edney was 15th, finishing with a combined time of 1:35.336.
With files from The Canadian Press