Lake Placid (pps) Ashley Hayden, Jonathan Myles and Bengt Walden/Brian Martin are the winners of the U.S. National Luge Start Championships recently held in Lake Placid. While it was Ashley Hayden’s eighth and Myles’s fourth title, the doubles team Walden/Martin celebrated its first success.

On the refrigerated start ramp at USA Luge’s headquarters, Ashley Hayden, fourth placer at the 2005 FIL World Luge Championships, captured the event’s gold medal in a total time of 2.708 seconds ahead of Julia Clukey (2.717) and Courtney Zablocki (2.802). In men’s singles, Jonathan Myles clocked a winning time of 2.584 seconds. Silver went to Bengt Walden (2.608), gold to Nick Gerardi (2.638). In doubles, Bengt Walden filled in for Mark Grimmette, who had decided not to race, and captured the title together with Grimmette’s partner Brian Martin ahead of Matt Mortensen/Preston Griffall (2.627) and Tony Benshoof/Jonathan Myles (2.633).