Christie cracks top-15 to lead Canadians in World Cup luge stop
KOENIGSSEE, Germany - Italy's Armin Zoeggeler captured the 53rd World Cup men's luge title of his career on Thursday, setting a course record in the process.
Zoeggeler, who turned 37 on Tuesday, clocked a time of 50.494 seconds in his first run to record the fastest time on the reconstructed Konigssee track, and was the quickest down the course in his second run (50.765 seconds), to reach the top of the podium for the eighth time this season.
Russia's Albert Demchenko was second, while Italy's Reinhold Rainer took the bronze.
Calgary's Jeff Christie was the top Canadian, as he finished in 15th place, 1.534 seconds back of Zoeggeler. Sam Edney, also of Calgary, was 17th, while Brendan Hauptmann of Kimberley, B.C., was 18th.
“We know that we can be in the top-10 but we have to be more consistent. That is the difference each week right now,” said Canadian head coach Wolfgang Staudinger. “We are going to continue to work hard, get run volume and keep working on having two consistent runs.”
Canada's entry in the team relay, which followed the men's singles event, finished fifth on Thursday in a time of two minutes 47.176 seconds.
The relay consists of one men's sled, one women's sled and one men's doubles sled. When the first sled reaches the bottom of the course, the slider hits a button to open the gate for the next sled.
Canada's entry consisted of Alex Gough on the women's sled, Edney and Calgary's Justin Snith on the doubles sled, and Tristan Walker of Cochrane, Alta., on the men's sled.
The Germans posted the top time in the relay with a combined time of 2:45.971.