Olympic Champion Loch sets new track record to claim 37th race win

Calgary (RWH) Having failed to win a title in the pre-Olympic winter season, two-time Olympic gold medallist Felix Loch is enjoying a return to winning ways in the luge. The five-time World Champion claimed the 37th race win of his career at the Viessmann World Cup in Calgary, Canada. And better still, the two-time Olympic Champion from Germany also set a new track record of 44.274 seconds in ideal conditions at the Canada Olympic Park. This bettered the previous best mark of 44.516 seconds set 15 years ago by the most successful World Champion of all time, Italy’s Armin Zöggeler.

Loch took victory by 0.386 seconds over local hero Sam Edney, who was competing in his final race on the 1988 Olympic track. Third went to Russia’s Roman Repilov, the overall winner of last season’s Viessmann World Cup.

After five of the thirteen races in the Viessmann World Cup scheduled for this Olympic winter, Felix Loch leads the overall standings with a commanding 455 points. Second is World Champion Wolfgang Kindl (279) of Austria, who finished eighth in Calgary. Ralf Palik (GER) is now third overall on 271 points following his seventh place finish in Canada.

Quotes

Felix Loch (GER / two-time Olympic Champion and five-time World Champion):

“I’ve always gone well here in Calgary. And I’ve always enjoyed winning too. Given the season I had last year, I’ve got to be happy with this. I’m getting back the feeling I need to drive well. And of course it’s great to beat the track record which had stood since 2002.”

Sam Edney (CAN / winner of the Viessmann World Cup in Calgary 2014/2015 and third in PyeongChang 2016/2017):

“I’m happy to be on the podium. It’s extra special because it happened in front of my family and my friends in Calgary. And in my last race here. I focused on this race to help me feel happy and secure going into the main event of the season.”

Roman Repilov (RUS / 2017 World Championship silver medallist and overall winner of the Viessmann World Cup 2016/2017):

“The first run wasn’t awful, but it wasn’t particularly good either. On the second run I made a huge mistake at the start, which gave me lots of problems. A podium is always good, but I know I can do better.”