YOG gold for Canada and Italy

Lillehammer (RWH)  The second day of the luge competition at the Youth Olympic Games in Lillehammer, Norway, culminated in a surprise victory for Canadian slider Brooke Apshkrum in the women’s event and a win for Felix Schwarz/Lukas Gufler, the Italian favourites in the men’s doubles. 16-year-old Apshkrum, who finished seventh at the 2016 Junior World Championships in Winterberg (GER), pushed Germany’s Jessica Tiebel and Austrian Madeleine Egle into second and third respectively. Silver and bronze in the men’s doubles went to Germany’s Hannes Orlamünder/Paul Gubitz and Vsevolod Kashkin/Konstantin Korshunov from Russia.

Brooke Apshkrum, who was born on 9 September 1999 in Calgary, has never made it onto the podium in the Junior World Cup, with her best finish to date a fourth place in Innsbruck. Jessica Tiebel, the 2015 Junior World Champion, did not compete in last week’s Junior World Championships for health reasons.