Chris Moffat Qualifies For 2002 Olympics
Calgary’s Chris Moffat will be doing double duty at the 2002 Winter Olympics. Moffat met the Canadian Olympic Association (COA) qualification for doubles luge last week with partner Eric Pothier (Airdrie, Alberta) and today claimed his final qualifier in Men’s Singles at World Cup Five.So far, Canada has qualified two lugers for Men’s Singles, one for Women’s Singles and one Doubles Luge team.
Moffat, age 21, is in just his second season as a Senior. His time of one minute, 51.675 seconds was good enough for 15th place in the field of 42 sliders. Team mate Tyler Seitz was five one thousandths of a second ahead of Moffat with a time of 1:51.670 and other Canadian sliders, Kyle Connelly (1:51.719) and Mike Moffat (1:52.204) finished 16th and 22nd.
"I’m really pleased with today’s race,” reported Chris Moffat. “Having my final qualifier for the Olympics will take a lot of pressure off me for the World Championships in Calgary in February."
Connelly, age 20, in his rookie year as a Senior luger, is also a strong contender to meet COA qualification criteria prior to the 2002 Games. Today’s results give him the first of the four COA required qualifyiers.
Connelly reported, “Today’s race was a lot of fun. The team is really working well together, it’s a relief to have my first Olympic qualifier behind me and I look forward to a few days rest at home before heading to Japan for the next World Cup race.”
On the podium at World Cup Five were Armin Zoggeller (1:49.685) of Italy; Germany’s Georg Hackl (1:50.165) and Austrian Markus Prock(1:50.198).
Next stop on the senior World Cup Luge circuit will be Nagano, Japan, for World Cup Six which runs February 3rd and 4th.
For full results of World Cup Five Men’s competition, see www.fil-luge.org
All Canadian athletes are from Calgary unlesss otherwise noted.