Kim McRae Finishes Fifth, Doubles Team Leads Canadians to Fourth in Relay

OBERHOF, Ger.—Kim McRae shattered her career best World Cup luge result in Oberhof, Germany with a fifth-place finish on Sunday, but she was clearly looking for more.

“All I can say is it was Orberhof. My best here before was 10th. It is the best I have ever done here, but my runs were rough today,” said McRae. “I had two goals: achieve top-five start times and two clean runs. I got the starts, but the runs were not great. You win some and you lose some.”

One week after making history by becoming the second Canadian ever to win an individual medal at a luge World Championships where she won the bronze, the 24 year old from the Stampede City clocked a fifth-place time of 1:22.905.

“This is a shorter driving track. As much as it was a rough day, I do gain confidence knowing that I was still in the top-five,” added McRae. “I was up and down in training all week and it was the same in the races again today. Luge is hard that way – the more you think sometimes the worse it gets.

“I need to keep building each week, getting things a little more consistent. This week I went for position and fast starts. I’ll keep working on things going forward.”

Germany slid to the top-two spots on the podium. Natalie Geisenberger was first with a time of 1:22.388. Tatjana Huefner dropped one spot in the second heat, but held on for the silver medal with a time of 1:22.389. Russia’s Tatyana Ivanova rounded out the women’s singles podium with a time of 1:22.669.

Calgary’s Alex Gough had the fourth and second top start times, but bled time on bottom half the track, dropping her into 10th place at 1:22.985. Calgary’s Brooke Apshkrum also suited up and was 23rd. The teenager clocked-in at 1:23.858.

The inconsistency continued for McRae and the Canadian squad in the team relay where they finished just off the podium in fourth place, thanks to another stellar day of sliding by the doubles team of Tristan Walker and Justin Snith.

With McRae leading the way, Calgary’s Sam Edney had the Canadians in sixth spot before the doubles took the anchor leg, pulling the red and white back into fourth place with a combined time of 2:22.600.

“We definitely got lucky with the fourth because the doubles really reigned everyone in. They had another great run today and got us the fourth,” added McRae. “The relay was just really rough for me, and just showed my instability here.”

The Germans won the team relay with a time of 2:21.465. The Russians were second at 2:21.695, while Latvia edged the Canadian’s out for the bronze medal with a time of 2:21.989.

The team relay consists of one women’s singles sled, one men’s singles sled and a doubles team. Athletes hit a pad hanging over the finish line to clear the track for the next sled at the start.

The Viessmann Luge World Cup now takes one week off of competition for a week of training on the Olympic Track in Pyeongchang, Korea prior to the World Cup test event, February 17-18.

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.

Women’s Singles Results: http://www.fil-luge.org/cdn/uploads/rl2wcwomen-10.pdf

Team Relay Results: http://www.fil-luge.org/cdn/uploads/rlrelay.pdf