Cesana Pariol, Italy. As expected the German women take one, two, three after two out of four runs with reigning Olympic Champion Sylke Otto leading over Silke Kraushaar and Tatjana Hüfner. US athlete Courtney Zablocki currently in fourth place.

With the attendance of IOC president Dr. Jacques Rogge the Olympic Luge program was continued at Cesana Pariol on Monday featuring run one and two of the women.
Taking first and second place in the first run Sylke Otto and Tatjana Hüfner from Germany unsurprisingly set a baseline. Hüfner had first beaten the start record of her teammate Silke Kraushaar with 4.33 seconds and thereafter marked a new track record at 47.109, set by Otto in November. This record did not stay for long: Otto, next at the start, lowered it down to 47.041. Italian athlete Anastasia Oberstolz-Antonova and Natalia Yakushenko from the Ukraine, both recognized as potential contenders for a medal were the unlucky birds. The Italian crashed in curves 17 thru 19 and could not finish her run which made her drop out of the race. Yakushenko could get back on her sled again to finish the run after a crash but she hurt her arm and did not compete in the second run. Courtney Zablocki from the USA turned third ahead of Kraushaar, who – with bib number 12 – suffered a lot from increasing temperatures which affected the ice quality a lot.

In the second run, held after sunset at much lower temperatures, Kraushaar set the pace with a new track record at 46.860. Only Otto could be her total time of 1:33.861 by 26 hundreds of a second and she marked a new track record again with 46.820. Tatjana Hüfner could not repeat her performance from the first run. When she had problems with the spikes on her gloves at the start she was not able to set the paddles the right way and lost a lot of time. It was remarkable that, however, she only pulled back to third place with a total time of 1:34.378. Courtney Zablocki managed to get another solid run down with a total of 1:34.382 which puts her into fourth place ahead of the two Austrian athletes Sonja Manzenreiter and Veronika Halder.
The fast ice made it a big challenge for some participants: Samantha Retrosi from the USA sustained a head trauma with a mild concussion after crashing into curve 14. Retrosi was alert and responsive after briefly being knocked unconscious. She also had a cut on her chin and left knee and was taken to the City Hospital Orthopaedic Trauma Centre in Torino to be checked. The race was continued after a short hold. Czech athlete Marketa Jeriova dropped out of the race caused by a crash too.

The final results will be determined in the third and fourth run on Tuesday.

QUOTES

OTTO, Sylke (GER): I am happy that I got two runs down similar to Salt Lake. I had two small mistakes in the upper section and then tried to be fast. In the lower part it went pretty good. I hope I can put in two more similar runs tomorrow. In any case I need to attack – three tenth of a second do not mean anything and everyone can make mistakes.

KRAUSHAAR, Silke (GER): I cannot blame myself – my start was good and the run too, except for two very little mistakes at the exit of curve 14. However, I was very angry. The problem was the difference of the ice temperature between practice and the first run – it was almost ten degrees and this is a lot. The gap to Sylke (Otto) is hard to close – if we both get two solid runs down tomorrow, I can hardly imagine to catch up with her. On the other hand Tatjana showed how much a mistake at the start can affect the result. I will really attack tomorrow, put in everything from top to bottom – we will see how far this will get me.

HÜFNER, Tatjana (GER): My spikes got crossed so I could not put the pinguins. The sled swipped, turned and the whole thing took a lot of time. Tomorrow is another day and the others are pretty far ahead – we will see. I will focus on bringing two good and solid runs down to the finish.

ZABLOCKI, Courtney (USA): It went pretty good so I am happy. There will be two more runs tomorrow where I will definitely try my best. In the first run I went a little late into curve seven and the same happened to me in curve three, four and five in the second run. We will have to fight hard for a medal.

Photo (c) Nancie Battaglia