Friday, November 9, 2001
Canadians get sweet second shot
By CAMERON MAXWELL -- Calgary Sun
Thank goodness for lucky losers.
The Canadian men's doubles team of Mike Moffatt and Grant Albrecht, along with Calgarian Tyler Seitz all got a lift into the finals of the Krombacher Luge Challenge Cup last night thanks to the format where the fastest non-qualifying time gives competitors another shot.
The other Canadian men's doubles team of Eric Pothier and Chris Moffat made the doubles finals outright and finished second with a clocking of 44.614 behind the German team Andre Florschutz and Torsten Wustlich, who won with time of 44.461.
Moffat and Albrecht were fourth after their time of 44.704,. which was hampered by a bad start.
Seitz's time of 45.887 left him in sixth place in men's singles competition.
Germany's Georg Hackl won with a time of 45.302.
No Canadian women qualified for the races, a cash-grab event that doesn't count in the World Cup standings.
Germany's Sylke Otto won the event, clocking a time of 44.455. She beat teammate Silke Kraushaar, last year's World Cup champion.
While Pothier and Moffat were happy with their second-place run, Seitz felt he could have performed much better on a track where he's had hundreds of runs.
"This is my home course -- it's where I should do really well," said Seitz, adding he was happy to get the bad runs out his system before the men's World Cup event tomorrow.
He said he made mistakes on his final run going through turns six and seven as he rocketed down the track at 120 km/h.
"That's a very crucial part of the track where I lost time and couldn't get it back."
Seitz, 25, who finished 13th on the World Cup circuit last year, got through the first round by beating Austria's Mar Kleinheinz, despite what he called a "bad run" where he made several mistakes at the top of the track.
Kyle Connelly, who also lives in Calgary, made it to the semifinal after American Adam Heidt had a terrible run that saw him lose precious time when he bumped the wall. Connelly was then eliminated by Armin Zoggeler.
Canadians compete against the rest of the world again today in the Viesmann World Cup. Men's doubles and women's competitions start at 5:30 p.m. at Canada Olympic Park.
2002 Games Luge Coverage
