Alex Gough Caps Off Dream Season with Fourth-Place Finish at Luge World Cup
SIGULDA, Lat.—Alex Gough capped off a historic season on the Luge World Cup by finishing in fourth spot on Sunday in Sigulda, Latvia.
Calgary’s Gough, who was the first non-German athlete in 105 races to win a woman’s luge race last weekend, came within fractions of a second of sliding back onto the podium in the final race of the season after she finished fourth in Sigulda.
The 23-year-old two-time Olympian, who sat in third spot after the opening run, made a small mistake during her second trip down the track to finish fourth at one minute, 25.210 seconds.
“I haven’t had a lot of experience on this track so I’m happy with my result today,” said Gough. “I made a couple of small mistakes, I pulled my fastest start of the week on the first run and was relatively consistent today so I’m satisfied.”
Germany’s Tatjana Hufner finished on top at 1:24.679, while Russia’s Tatiana Ivanova slid to the silver medal with a time of 1:24.692. Germany’s Anke Wischnewski round out the woman’s podium in third at 1:25.187.
Gough racked up five medals in nine races during her historic season.
In addition to becoming the first Canadian to win a luge World Cup race, Gough started her podium run this season as the fourth Canadian ever to win a World Cup medal in the sport with three bronze, and subsequently the only Canuck ever to win multiple international medals. Three weeks ago Gough also became the first Canadian ever to reach the podium at the Luge World Championships where she also slid to a bronze.
“It has been an absolutely amazing season. To start off with the third place finish in Winterberg, and it just built from there,” said Gough. “But last week winning the World Cup was incredible. I still don’t know that I really processed it all. I’m so excited, happy and proud of myself for this season.”
Gough and the Canadian Luge Team will return to Calgary International Airport from Frankfurt, Germany at 4 p.m. on Tuesday where they will have a brief break before hitting the gym for summer training.
“I am so looking forward to next season and what may be down the road over the next three years leading to Sochi,” said Gough. “There is still lots of room to grow and while I am looking forward to a break, I’m definitely motivated to train hard over the summer and be in better shape next winter.
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 its title sponsor, Fast Track Capital, along with the support 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 Results:
1. Tatjana Hufner, GER, 1:24.679; 2. Tatiana Ivanova, RUS, 1:24.692; 3. Anke Wischnewski, GER, 1:25.187; Alex Gough, Calgary, CAN, 1:25.210; 5. Nina Reithmayer, AUT, 1:25.313