Lake Placid - “Dead heat” in the men’s singles
Lake Placid (pps) The USA Luge national championships on the artificially refrigerated track in Lake Placid ended with a few surprises as first Julia Clukey ended Erin Hamlin’s five-year long reign as national women’s champion. And then, in the men’s race, Chris Mazdzer and the 17-year old Tucker West shared the title, both finishing in the same time. Matt Mortensen and Preston Griffal took the national doubles’ title.
Clukey, who has recovered from Arnold Chiari syndrome, followed by knee shoulder problems, finished the four runs with a winning margin of 0.088 seconds to take her first national title. Summer Britcher, who earned a gold medal in the team relay event at the 2012 Youth Olympic Games (YOG), finished on third place. Her YOG teammate Tucker West celebrated his first national victory, sharing the title with Chris Mazdzer as both finished the four runs in 3:33.262 minutes. Third place went to Aidan Kelly.
The doubles title went to Mortensen-Griffal, followed by Ty Andersen-Anthony Espinoza and Shane Hook-Zac Clark. With a winning margin of almost one second the title in the team relay event, which will be carried out for the first time at 2014 Olympic Games, went to the quartet of Summer Britcher, Tucker West and Jake Hyrns-Andrew Sherk.
