Cesana Pariol, Italy. Defending Olympic Chamion Armin Zöggeler from Italy took the lead after the first two runs ahead of Albert Demtschenko from Russia and Tony Benshoof from the USA.

In time for the first day of competition the Olympic Spirit has finally reached the Piemont mountains, presented at pure sunshine all day long. The Olympic Luge track at Cesana Pariol once again proved itself to be challenging but most luge racers had learned their lesson during training: The current standings after the first and second out of four runs did not turn out to be entirely surprising but the list of medal contenders needs to be extended.

Georg Hackl from Germany, three times gold and two times silver medalist, was the one to open the Olympic Luge races – his last Games before retiring. Despite the fact that only a few recognized him to belong to those who might claim a medal at the Torino Olympics, Hackl proved again that he has to be counted as one of the contenders. Reaching the finish after the first run he did beat the track record (set by Tony Benshoof from the USA last November) with a time of 51.856 but this did not last for long: Defending Olympic Champion Armin Zöggeler took it from Hackl straight and claimed the lead with a time of 51.718. The German stayed in second place almost half way through the first run. Only Albert Demtschenko from Russia, one of the top favourites if he does not take too much risk, managed to beat him for second place at 51.747. US luge racer Tony Benshoof claimed fourth place. With 139.3 kilometers per hour he had the maximum speed registered today.

For the second run the conditions had changed a lot. Without the sunshine and held at floodlight the ice had become much faster. However it did not change the ranking a lot: German Jan Eichhorn, 10th after the first run and fastest in training broke the track record to 51.469 as the first starter in the second run. Zöggeler put in another fast run, breaking the track record down to 51.414 and taking the lead over second placed Demtschenko by a total of 15 hundreds of a second. Benshoof moved up to third place ahead of Martins Rubenis from Lativa and Hackl who, similar to the first run, suffered from an unsatisfying start time. Eichhorn moved up to sixth place while his teammate David Möller improved from eigth to seventh place.

Runs three and four will be held on February 12th with the third run scheduled for 16:00 and the fourth run taking place at 18:10.

QUOTES

ZÖGGELER, Armin (ITA): I have put in two solid runs today which I could not work out in training so I am very happy.

DEMTSCHENKO, Albert (RUS): The track is in great shape, it is just a shame that the surroundings have not been completed entirely. I am not very happy with my results, I could have done a lot better. However, this is just the first half, everything will be decided tomorrow.

BENSHOOF, Tony (USA): I am confident but I am not over the count, a lot of work to do tomorrow still. It is all about getting it down the hill, you have to keep it simple: It is all about consistency.

HACKL, Georg (GER): I do not like to make too many comments on my first run, I did a lot better than in training so I am relieved. I did not make serious mistakes but the start is too slow. I did a 2.55 in training and was at 2.59 only today – I tried hard but could not work it out today. Sliding is working very well but for me it is all about the start. All in all I am very happy after the first half of the race. Considering the awful training I am glad that I got two solid runs down, much better than expected.

EICHHORN, Jan (GER): I was totally surprised about the track record and almost could not believe it. I will put everything into my runs tomorrow – all or nothing.

MÖLLER: I slipped in both the first and the second run and it is obvious – I lose time in the upper section and make it up again further down. We need to adjust my sled to the fast ice and I am sure I can make it up to Jan Eichhorn and Rubenis then.

Photo (c) Nancie Battaglia