Baby Lugers Add to Medal Haul at Youth World Cup in Whistler

WHISTLER, B.C.—The baby Canucks showed the world who is boss at the Whistler Sliding Centre, grabbing four more medals on Saturday at the Youth and Junior World Cup.

The boys from Whistler swept the youth men’s podium for the second straight race with Adam Shippit grabbing topping the charts once again. The Pemberton, B.C. native took advantage of being on home turf to clock his second golden time of the week at 1:18.097.

"The race was really good today and I felt like the overall feel of the race was different,” said Shippit. “There was still a lot of stress on me to follow up the previous performance."

Reid Watts, of Whistler, moved up a spot into the silver medal position on the podium after sliding to a two-run time of 1:18.290. Nicky Klimchuk-Brown slid up the sea-to-sky highway from Squamish to claim the bronze medal on the 2010 Olympic Track with a two-run time of 1:18.397.

Kyla Graham also grabbed back-to-back bronze medals in the women’s race. The young Calgary talent held court with the Russians, clocking-in at 1:21.523.

"It feels good to be going into my third year sliding and placing third in the Youth World Cup held on one of my home tracks,” said Graham. “This experience inspires me to push forward and see what my future in luge holds for me."

The Russian women flip flopped positions from the opening race this week, but still grabbed the top-two spots on the podium. Yulia Naumova slid to the gold medal with a time of 1:21.498, while Olesya Mikhaylenko hopped onto the silver medal step of the podium with a time of 1:21.509.

Three other young Canucks stacked themselves into the top five. Nicole Piderperyhora, of Pemberton, B.C., was fourth at 1:21.763, while Calgary’s Brooke Apshkrum placed fifth at 1:21.785. Calgary’s Carter Malyk was also fifth in the men’s race with a time of 1:18.580.

With more than 80 athletes representing 11 countries, this is just the first time the next generation of Olympic luge athletes have slid into the Whistler Sliding Centre for a Youth and Junior World Cup race – a critical step forward for providing increased race opportunities for the nation’s young sliders, while exposing more kids to the sport.

For a complete list of results: www.fil-luge.org

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 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.