Alex Gough Leads Canadian Luge Athletes in Fifth at World Championships

SIGULDA, Lat.—It was a bittersweet day for Canada’s Alex Gough who slid into fifth spot in the women’s race at the Luge World Championships in Sigulda, Latvia.

Pulling the two fastest starts of the day, the 27-year-old Calgarian, made a couple of small mistakes that cost her a third trip to the World Championship podium, dropping her into fifth spot with a two-run time 1:24.616.

“I definitely wanted more from today, but overall I had pretty good runs,” said Gough. “Looking at the times I lost some time in the bottom section and I'll have to analyze why that was.”

With her mom cheering in the stands, Gough’s splits had her in the medal mix, but a drop of her head cost her valuable time moving her to fifth spot.

“I was really only less than a tenth out of third,” said Gough. “It was a tight race and I fell out on the wrong side of a fraction of a second and sometimes that's just how it goes with racing.”

“The margin for error is so small,” added Wolfgang Staudinger, head coach, Canadian Luge Team. “Alex was right there battling with Geisenberg in second, third and fourth, but made a couple of very small mistakes that cost her fractions of a second and a spot on the podium.

Gough has two bronze medals in her career at the World Championships. She also won a silver in Sigulda one year ago.

Germany’s Natalie Geisenberger finished on top at 1:24.142. Russia’s Tatiana Ivanova slid to the silver medal with a time of 1:24.458, while Germany’s Tatjana Huefner grabbed the bronze at 1:24.463.

Fellow Calgarians, Kim McRae and Arianne Jones also hit the start line. McRae clocked-in at 1:25.022 to finish 12th while Jones placed 14th at 1:25.115.

It was a tough day for Canada’s doubles team of Tristan Walker (Cochrane, Alta.) and Justin Snith (Calgary) who slid into 11th spot at 1:25.023.

Germany’s Tobias Wendl and Tobias Arlt captured the World Championship doubles crown with a time of 1:23.900. Austria’s Peter Penz and Georg Fischler were second at 1:24.036, while Italy’s Christian Oberstolz and Patrick Gruber rounded out the podium in third at 1:24.157.

The Luge World Championships wrap up on Sunday with the men’s singles and team relay events.

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.

Complete Women’s Results: http://www.fil-luge.org/index.php?id=383&event_id_fk=798&L=

Complete Doubles Results: http://www.fil-luge.org/index.php?id=383&event_id_fk=798&L=