POSTED: Saturday January 9th 2010
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
US doubles teams approach podium: Grimmette/Martin 4th; Niccum/Joye 8th
Zoeggeler overcomes Demtschenko to stop winning streak
AUDIO LINKS OF GRIMMETTE AND MARTIN BELOW
PRONOUNCER: grih-MET
WINTERBERG, Germany - Must be a significant event is just around the corner: the United States doubles luge team of Mark Grimmette and Brian Martin, Olympic silver and bronze medalists along with six World Championship bronze to their credit, finished fourth Saturday in a World Cup race in Winterberg, Germany.
The achievement occurred in snowing and blowing weather, just five weeks before the Olympic doubles event at the Whistler Sliding Center, north of Vancouver, site of the 2010 Olympic Winter Games.
The result was their best performance of the six races to date with only two World Cup competitions remaining prior to the Games.
"A lot of people got blown around and, as a result of the weather, the ice was not in great condition," said Martin who is headed to his fourth Olympic berth. "Both of our runs were pretty good. Experience helped. You had to make some small corrections all the way down. We tried to take charge of the sled and ride it down the hill."
After struggling with equipment earlier this winter, the duo are beginning to increase their speeds. "We handled the sled well today, but we’re still trying to make it go a little faster," continued Martin. "These last three races are important. The big takeaway is that these events count for seeding at the Games. This week and the next two will determine that.
The higher seeded athletes are guaranteed better ice conditions for the Winter Olympics.
Grimmette, of Muskegon, Mich., and Martin, of Palo Alto, Calif., equaled the U.S. team’s best doubles effort of the season. Teammates Christian Niccum and Dan Joye, who also placed fourth last month in Lillehammer, Norway, took eighth on Saturday.
"The conditions were pretty brutal with lots of snow and wind," added Grimmette. "It was important to point the sled where you wanted it to go, keep a good line and headed in the right direction. It was unpredictable.
"I knew it was important to put down two good runs and be ready for anything. Parts of the track you couldn’t let the sled go, but in other sections you could."
With two races remaining before the 2010 events at the Whistler Sliding Center, north of Vancouver, there are still some small goals for this team to achieve as they seek yet another Olympic medal.
"Today was a step in the right direction," continued the 38 year old who is headed to his fifth Winter Games. "We are doing some work on the sled, but also working on getting a faster start and a better position on the sled. My head may have been too high in this race, so I will keep working on that to get better aerodynamics."
Italy dominated with gold and silver medal-winning efforts as European Champions Christian Oberstolz and Patrick Gruber recorded the two best runs of a topsy-turvy day. They clocked 44.323 and 44.272 seconds for a one minute, 28.597 total down the 945 meter-long, 11 curve doubles course. It was their first World Cup triumph of the winter and 15th in their careers.
The victory tightened the overall World Cup standings considerably as Oberstolz and Gruber lifted themselves to second place with 440 points. They trail Vancouver-bound Germans Andre Florschutz and Torsten Wustlich by only two points. Florschutz and Wustlich were positioned in fourth after the opening leg. However they had problems midway into the last heat and dropped to 12th in the final standings.
Gerhard Plankensteiner and Oswald Haselrieder, 2009 World Champions, rallied from fifth place after one heat to take second in 1:28.805. Germany’s enigmatic Patric Leitner and Alexander Resch, 2002 Olympic champions, after training well during the week, settled for third place in 1:28.990 and sit third overall at 430 points.
Grimmette and Martin were next in 1:29.126. Their individual heat times were seventh and sixth fastest, respectively. They are 11th in the World Cup standings at 215.
GRIMMETTE / MARTIN AUDIO:
www.usaluge.org/team/BrianMartinPostWC62010.mp3 Brian Martin audio, part 1
www.usaluge.org/team/BrianMartinPostWC62010pt2.mp3 Brian Martin audio, part 2
www.usaluge.org/team/MarkPostWC62010.mp3 Mark Grimmette audio, part 1
www.usaluge.org/team/MarkPostWC62010pt2.mp3 Mark Grimmette audio, part 2
The unusual conditions saw Tobias and Markus Schiegl, Austrian cousins, sitting second at the intermission before slumping to sixth at day’s end.
Niccum, of Woodinville, Wash., and Joye, of Carmel, N.Y., both married with young children, struggled in the opening run, taking 13th place. But their finale was the fifth best of the event and elevated them to eighth. Niccum and Joye are 10th on the season with 223.
Andris Sics and Juris Sics, of Latvia, were looking at their first career World Cup medal as their opening run put them third. Once again, though, issues in the finale sunk them to 10th at the conclusion.
Two-time Olympic gold medalist and current World Cup leader Armin Zoeggeler of Italy shocked Albert Demtschenko of Russia in the second heat to win his third men’s singles competition of the season and stop the Russian’s winning streak at two.
Demtschenko took a .22 of a second advantage into the second run down the 1,324 meters, 15 curve men’s layout. The winner of recent World Cups in Lillehammer and Koenigssee, Germany got his final heat off to a rousing start by establishing a new start record. Then he stumbled the remainder of the way down Winterberg’s speed-oriented chute, making the race much closer. Demtschenko lost the gold medal by a scant .02 of a second.
Zoeggeler put down times of 53.890 and 53.711 for an aggregate 1:47.601. Demtschenko clocked 1:47.621, while David Moeller of Germany picked up the bronze in 1:47.652.
The winner has three wins and three seconds in the six events for a total of 555 World Cup points. He is followed by Demtschenko at 464 and Moeller at 361.
Tony Benshoof of White Bear Lake, Minn., nursing a back problem that has hampered his start technique all season, was the top American in 13th place with a time of 1:48.767. Benshoof stands eighth overall at 221. Chris Mazdzer of Saranac Lake, N.Y. took 16th - his top placing of the winter - in 1:49.216. He is ranked 25th with 97 points. Bengt Walden of Lake Placid, N.Y., a former member of the Swedish Luge Team before gaining U.S. citizenship, slipped to 29th in 1:50.873. Walden was 10th at the break and headed to a top 10 finish but lost ground after at the bottom of the second run. Walden is 19th at 124.
The Winterberg World Cup stop concludes Sunday with women’s singles followed by the Team Relay.
For more information on the Fastest Sport on Ice®, log on to http://www.usaluge.org
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Keywords · USA Luge · Mark Grimmette · Brian Martin · World Cup · Winterberg · Germany
Name: Gordy Sheer
Organization: USA Luge
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