Cesana Pariol, Italy. Armin Zöggeler is the old and new Olympic Champion who claimed the first Gold medal for the Italian team at the Torino Games. Albert Demtschenko from Russia took the Silver ahead of Latvian Martins Rubenis. German Luge Icon Georg Hackl turned seventh before retiring.

Pure excitement – this is how to summarize the second day of Luge racing at the 20th Olympic Games at Torino in the best possible way.
Similar to Saturday defending Champion Armin Zöggeler kept the lead after run three out of four on the technical and fast Cesana Pariol Luge track. Russian luge racer Albert Demtschenko had the best running time with 51.396 and broke the track record which Zöggeler had set Saturday but there was no means for him to beat the Italian although he managed to reduce the gab from 15 to 12 hundreds of a second. Martins Rubenis from Latvia moved up to third and sent US luge racer Tony Benshoof to fourth place, ahead of the German trio Jan Eichhorn, Georg Hackl (with a start time of 2,56 seconds within the target he had set) and David Möller.

The decisive fourth run could have hardly been more exciting. Numerous fans along the track and on the finish tribune demanded the conclusion of succes of their fellow countryman. With the reversed start order the final decision, however, was only taken at the very end. David Möller missed his own start record by eight thousands of a second only and with a fast and solid run he took the lead which he could defend against Reinhold Rainer from Italy, Georg Hackl and Jan Eichhorn. Tony Benshoof was the first to beat him with a total of 3:26.598 but this time only stood for less than a minute: With the second fastest run and a total of 3:26.445 Martins Rubenis made it to the podium, just the decision of the medals color was no longer in his hand afterwards since there were two left at the start. Demtschenko attacked and celebrated his lead at a total of 3:26.198. Right after, not unexpected and similar to the three runs before Zöggeler dominated and although he only got the fifth fastest running time he claimed the win with a total of 3:26.088, the first Gold for his celebrating home crowd at the Torino Olympics. Silber went to Demtschenko, Rubenis was happy about the Bronze, the first ever medal for Latvia at Olympic Games. Benshoof ended up in unfavourable fourth ahead of Möller, Eichhorn und Hackl.

The latter mentioned officially announced his farewell from Luge racing. "I am relieved," Hackl said. "The farewell does not hurt too much since I discovered that it is time to retire. The physical shape is no more the same and with my weakness at the start an important parameter is missing." And to the question if he might have had continued without the injury last year: (with his typical smile) "If the rules would have been changed according to soap box racing where the gate opens at the start and you are pushed out – who knows…" After and outstanding career "Hackl Schorsch" will, however, still be related to Luge. Josef Fendt, President of the International Luge Federation, feels sad about Hackls retirement and he thanked him for numerous years, where Hackl as an outstanding athlete thus has contributed a lot to the development of Luge.

QUOTES

ZÖGGELER, Armin (ITA): The key was to get four solid runs to down and I pulled it together. I knew I had to focus a lot to prevent from making mistakes which would have taken cost me the win. Albert (Demtschenko) had a great run just before and was on my toes so I could not risk to make a mistake. The pressure was huge for me so I am glad that I pulled it together. An Olympic medal is always extraordinary – it is wonderful that it was a gold.

DEMTSCHENKO, Albert (RUS): I am very happy about my first Olympic medal. It was hard against Armin (Zöggeler) since he is so strong and he was pushed so much by his home crowd.

RUBENIS, Martins (LAT): That is what it is, everything is fine and the Latvian fans are the best! The season went pretty good for me – I managed a top ten result in all races where I participated. However, my main goal was a good results at the Olympics. I focused a lot on my runs and when I crossed the finish line and so the One on the scoreboard, I knew that I was safe for a medal.

BENSHOOF, Tony (USA): It would have been nice to be on the podium and I tried my best, but just could not work it out. All in all fourth is fine considering only three guys could beat me at the Olympics. When Martin Rubenis was safe for the medal my first thought was: I cannot believe he did it.

MÖLLER, David (GER): The last run was kind of what I was hoping for every time. It is a shame but things like that happen sometimes.

HACKL, Georg (GER): This is it! The sled was great and I was happy with all my runs but to be further in front I had to have better starts. My preparations were unsufficiant all over – I was caught this time but it was great to be in there. I will stay the one I am who puts in everything and never gives up!

Photo (c) Nancie Battaglia