POSTED: Sunday January 17th 2010
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Germans finish the job as men sweep podium, win Team Relay

Benshoof leads Americans in 11th; Mazdzer has career best 14th

No seventh Winter Olympics for Italian Huber

OBERHOF, Germany - When the German men swept the podium on Sunday in a World Cup luge race, it completed a rush of all nine medals over the weekend in the three different disciplines.

Andi Langenhan, Johannes Ludwig and Jan Eichhorn may be newer names - only Langenhan is headed to the Vancouver Winter Olympics - but with this team, racers are interchangeable parts. The threesome finished in the gold, silver and bronze positions, respectively, Sunday on the 1,130 meter, 14 curve Oberhof track. They matched similar efforts that occurred Saturday in women’s singles and doubles.

Langenhan clocked 45.777 seconds in the opening leg and placed third. When he added the day’s best - a blazing 45.606 final heat - Langenhan put himself in the winner’s circle in one minute, 31.383 seconds. He won for the first time this season. It was the first podium effort of the year for all three.

Ludwig’s runner-up time was 1:31.466. He, too, needed an outstanding second run to improve from fifth place.

Eichhorn, the first run leader, settled for the bronze in 1:31.477.

Langenhan’s Olympic teammates David Moeller and Felix Loch were fifth and seventh, respectively, which served as a reminder that no future positions on the national team are secure.

Tony Benshoof, of White Bear Lake, Minn., competing with three herniated discs, nursed his back into 19th place in the first heat before rallying with the sixth best second run. The combination put Benshoof into 11th place at day’s end, .629 from Langenhan, in 1:32.012.

Teammate Chris Mazdzer, of Saranac Lake, N.Y., continues to find his form with another career-best effort. Mazdzer, the 2007 National Champion and a 2008 World Junior Championship silver medalist, took 14th in 1:32.107 and was rewarded with a berth in the afternoon Team Relay.

Ex-Swede Bengt Walden, now an American citizen living in Lake Placid, N.Y., finished 25th in 1:32.646.

All three Americans are headed to the Olympic events at the Whistler Sliding Center, north of Vancouver.

In addition to the completion of a virtuoso 10-for-10 performance for the home team (Germany also captured the Team Relay), the sub-plots were equally interesting. From the United States perspective, there was Mazdzer’s improvement in the World Cup ranks.

Also, the dominant racers of the season were relegated to unfamiliar ground as Albert Demtschenko of Russia was bumped down to fourth place and World Cup leader Armin Zoeggeler of Italy finished sixth.

After his worst result of the campaign, the Italian leads the series with 605 points with just one World Cup race remaining. The two-time defending Olympic gold medalist has won three times this season and added three silvers before today, and hopes to clinch his fifth consecutive overall championship. Zoeggeler needs to finish 21st in the season finale. Demtschenko is second at 524, with Moeller third on 436.

Benshoof stands 10th at 255; Walden is 20th with 140; Mazdzer 22nd at 125.

Germany polished off a perfect weekend by winning the final Team Relay of the season. Singles sliders Moeller and Tatjana Huefner were joined by the doubles team of Patric Leitner and Alexander Resch on the winner’s podium.

The Americans placed fifth overall with Erin Hamlin, of Remsen, N.Y., posting the third best women’s time; Mazdzer taking sixth in the men’s category; Mark Grimmette, of Muskegon, Mich., and Brian Martin, of Palo Alto, Calif., picking up fifth in doubles.

Finally there is the issue of old man winter, namely Wilfried Huber, attempting to set a Winter Olympic record for longevity. Huber sought a seventh Winter Olympic berth in luge.

Over the years, the Huber brothers Wilfried, Guenther, Norbert and Arnold, have been synonymous with luge and bobsled excellence. They have totaled five Olympic medals amongst them.

Wilfried won the 1994 Olympic title in doubles (with Kurt Brugger) and was embroiled with fellow countryman David Mair for their nation’s third and final singles position in February’s Olympic Winter Games. The survivor would join Zoeggeler and Reinhold Rainer.

A tie-breaker was needed Sunday when Mair placed 13th and Huber 15th, resulting in a points deadlock at 236. The verdict went to Mair by virtue of the faster single heat of the day between the two.

For the first time since the 1984 Winter Games in Sarajevo, there will be no Huber competing in the sliding sports.

The World Cup tour takes a one week break for the European Championships next weekend in Latvia. The Americans will forego that event and prepare for the World Cup final set for the 2006 Olympic course in Cesana, Italy, Jan. 30-31.

For more information on the Fastest Sport on Ice®, log on to http://www.usaluge.org

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Keywords · US Luge · World Cup · Oberhof · Germany · luge

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Name: Gordy Sheer
Organization: USA Luge
Email:
Phone: +1.518-523-2071 ext. 102
URL: http://www.usaluge.org

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