Alex Gough Fifth at Luge World Cup

 OBERHOF, Ger.—Alex Gough was not able to break down the powerful Germans at the Luge World Cup in Oberhof, Germany on Saturday.

Clearly the top women’s luge athlete in the world outside of Germany, Calgary's 25-year-old Gough finished fifth after clocking a two-run time of 1:24.134 on a highly-technical 11-corner track in Oberhof.

“We have to be happy with this. It was a solid performance and as there was not much more room to improve today,” said Wolfgang Staudinger, head coach, Canadian Luge Team.

Capitalizing on a favourable schedule with five straight races on their home track, the already powerful German nation slid to the top-four positions in the women’s event. Natalie Geisenberg finished on top at 1:23.597. Tanja Hufner claimed the silver with a time of 1:23.784, while Anke Wischnewski rounded out the podium in third at 1:23.896.

It was a solid day for the four Canadian women who combined to finish as the next strongest nation behind the Germans.

Calgarians Dayna Clay was 13th (1:24.994); Kim McRae placed 17th (1:25.098) and Arianne Jones slid into 18th spot at 1:25.133.

“This is a very demanding and technical track and I think we maximized our potential here this week,” said Staudinger. “This schedule with five of nine races on German tracks makes it very difficult for the rest of the world, but we can’t make excuses. We have to deal with it.”

Canada’s doubles team did not race on Saturday as Tristan Walker suffered a minor injury in a training run. Calgary’s Sam Edney will suit up in the men’s singles race on Sunday in Oberhof.

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 nations 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 and Canadian Results:
1. Natalie Geisenberger, GER, 1:23.597; 2. Tanja Hufner, GER, 1:23.784; 3. Anke Wischnewski, GER, 1:23.896; 4. Dajana Eitberger, GER, 1:24.001; 5. Alex Gough, Calgary, CAN, 1:24.134
Other Canadian Results:
13. Dayna Clay, Calgary, 1:24.994; 17. Kim McRae, Calgary, 1:25.098; 18. Arianne Jones, Calgary, 1:25.133.