Track records tumble as Geisenberger leads women’s luge

PyeongChang (RWH) As in the men’s luge yesterday, excitement is building as the female lugers now battle it out for medals at the Winter Olympics in PyeongChang, Korea. The track record was improved four times in the Alpensia Sliding Centre. Germany’s Natalie Geisenberger set the first of a flurry of new track records, and also goes into day two of the event at the top of the leaderboard.

Geisenberger, the Olympic Champion in Sochi, bettered the track record again on her second run, but Dajana Eitberger then set yet another new quickest time to propel herself into second position. The USA’s Summer Britcher went out and improved the best time again to 46.132 seconds. After a mistake on her first run, the 2017 U23 World Champion is lying a lowly 9th in the overall rankings, more than half a second down.

Canadian Alex Gough is currently third behind Geisenberger and Eitberger. Tatjana Hüfner lies fourth at the halfway point of the competition. Aileen Frisch achieved a surprise result in seventh to leave her in prime position to achieve host nation Korea’s best ever finish in luge by some margin.

Quotes

Natalie Geisenberger (GER / 2014 Olympic Champion, three-time World Champion)

“As we saw in the men’s luge, it isn’t over until the fourth run is done. I have a very slim advantage right now. My goal for day two is to have two clean runs without taking any risks. I won’t look at the leaderboard until the very end of the fourth run and see what the result is then.”

Dajana Eitberger (GER / 2015 European Champion)

“When I saw Natalie’s track record on the second run, I thought to myself, where on earth did that come from! I was still being quite cautious at that point. In the end I was happy and surprised when I saw a track record flash up next to my name. It’s going to be a really tight and exciting battle for the medals.”