Whistler (pps) Despite some crashes, the International Training Week prior to the 2010 Olympic Winter Games in Vancouver, Canada (February 12-28), at he „Whistler Sliding Center“ proved a success. Up until Sunday (November 15), a total of 156 lugers from 27 different nations staged an Olympic rehearsal on the high-speed track in the Blackcomb Mountains. The most important result for the organisers: Hardly three months prior to the Opening Ceremony on February 12, the “Whistler Sliding Center” is well prepared. >br>
And this holds true for the team of the hosts, as far as training impressions can be taken as a basis. Among the much improved team of Canada’s head coach Wolfgang Staudinger, who is supported in his work by the two German coaches Steffen Skel and Robert Fegg, the good training performances of Alex Gough (4th-placed at the Worlds) and Sam Edney were outstanding. Austria’s Manuel Pfister, younger brother of World bronze medallist Daniel Pfister, showed an impressive performance. Additionally, the doubles’ team with Andreas Linger-Wolfgang Linger, the 2006 Olympic champions of Torino, also showed a strong performance.
US luger Erin Hamlin then gave proof that – as the current World champion – she has to be reckoned with again in the Olympic season. Tony Benshoff, 2006 Olympic 4th-placed and last year impaired due to spinal disc surgery, has been able to tie in with his former successes. Additionally, Russia’s Albert Demchenko, 2006 Olympic silver medallist, as well as Italy’s two-time Olympic champion Armin Zoeggeler seemed to be well prepared for the upcoming tasks.
Within the German team two-time World champion Felix Loch as well as David Moeller, decorated with two World Championship gold medals and winner of the 2009 Viessmann Luge World Cup final in Whistler, demonstrated their “supremacy”. The three-time World champions and Olympic silver medallists Andre Florschuetz-Torsten Wustlich then showed a superior performance in the doubles’ event. The two won both internal qualifying events. In the qualifying event for the men’s singles David Moeller and Andi Langenhan each won once, in the women’s singles two-time World champion Tatjana Huefner prevailed over a surprisingly strong Anke Wischnewski.
Two-time World silver medallist Natalie Geisenberger, however, had to cancel the last qualifying event due to an injury. Following a crash she suffered a rupture of the outer ligament in the left ankle joint. But according to head coach Norbert Loch Geisenberger’s start in the season’s opener of the Viessmann Luge World Cup in Calgary next Saturday is not endangered.
