Albert second in front of Prock
Calgary (pps). At the opening of the Olympic winter Georg Hackl puts himself and his competitors in astonishment. The three times Olympic champion celebrated his 24th World Cup success in Calgary (Kanada) and – together with the second placed Karsten Albert – made Germany`s triumph at the first Viessmann World Cup in this season perfect. Before, the German women Sylke Otto, Silke Kraushaar and Barbara Niedernhuber were the top three in the women’s competition and the Doubles with Patric Leitner/Alexander Resch and Andre Florschütz/Torsten Wustlich resulted in a double victory for Germany.
Hackl won with 1:29,894 minutes ahead of Albert (1:29,977) and Markus Prock (1:30,177) from Austria. Hackl drove a fantastic track record in the first run. The three-time World Champion improved the old record of World Champion Armin Zöggeler (44.944) by almost three tenth of a second to 44.677.
The German had celebrated his first World Cup success at Winterberg in November 1987. A year later, Hackl won his first title with the gold medal at the European Championships. At the Olympic Games in Calgary 13 years ago, Hackl had won the silver medal.
Quotes
Georg Hackl (Germany) Three times Olympic Champion:
"The first run was excellent for me. I lost much time up at curve five due to a big mistake. Whenever I had a bad start into an Olympic winter, in the end I became Olympic cham-pion. I hope this isn`t a bad omen for Salt Lake City now.”
Karsten Albert (Germany): Ninth at World Championsships 2001:
"Of course this is a great start. But this result is of no use for me at all, if I cannot qualify for Salt Lake City or have bad runs at the Olympics. Therefore my motto is: Keep on fighting.”
Markus Prock (Austria), two-times World Champion:
"I am very satisfied with this result. I think that I am on the right way. However, the German superior strength is already alarming. But everybody knows that Hackl has always been doing well at Calgary.”
