{"id":137756,"date":"2017-12-09T22:31:24","date_gmt":"2017-12-10T03:31:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=137756"},"modified":"2017-12-09T22:31:24","modified_gmt":"2017-12-10T03:31:24","slug":"canadas-lugers-double-up-on-silver-medals-at-world-cup-in-calgary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2017\/12\/09\/canadas-lugers-double-up-on-silver-medals-at-world-cup-in-calgary\/","title":{"rendered":"Canada’s lugers double up on silver medals at World Cup in Calgary"},"content":{"rendered":"
\""I<\/a>
“I knew I had the potential to be right up there with Natalie and Tatjana.” (Photo<\/a>: Alex Gough Luge\/Facebook<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

CALGARY\u2014 Alex Gough’s fist shot into the air after she crossed the finish line of Calgary’s sliding track.<\/p>\n

Canada’s most decorated luger earned her first World Cup medal in women’s singles this season with a silver Saturday at\u00a0Canada\u00a0Olympic Park.<\/p>\n

The 30-year-old Calgarian was second to reigning world champion Tatjana Huefner of Germany. Olympic champion Natalie Geisenberger of Germany was third.<\/p>\n

\u201cI’ve been close a couple of times this year already,\u201d Gough said. \u201cI knew I had the potential to be right up there with Natalie and Tatjana.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt feels great to do it here and especially at home. You can see in the stands my family just took over.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gough now owns a career 26 World Cup medals in women’s singles. She raced the lead-off leg for the Canadian relay team that also earned silver Saturday.<\/p>\n

Along with Sam Edney’s silver in men’s singles Friday, a three-medal performance on their home track gave\u00a0Canada’s lugers a shot of confidence after a sluggish start to their season.<\/p>\n

Calgary’s Mitch Malyk and Victoria’s Kim McRae were fourth in men’s and women’s singles respectively.<\/p>\n

The Calgary doubles team of Tristan Walker and Justin Snith raced the anchor leg of the relay after placing sixth the previous day.<\/p>\n

The Canadians had returned to Calgary with a lone relay silver from the first three World Cups in Europe. Gough had twice finished fourth in women’s singles.<\/p>\n

With February’s Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea, coming over the horizon, the lugers looked for a jumpstart at home and got it.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was vital for us. I think if it had gone the other way, it would have really just damaged us,\u201d Edney said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe expected to do well and to deliver just feels like we can walk away with our heads high knowing we’re in a good spot.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Canadians competed in a relay on their home track for the first time. The relay, which made its Olympic debut in 2014, isn’t on the program at every World Cup.<\/p>\n

The relay is one run of women’s singles, men’s singles and doubles in that order with the combined times determining the winner.<\/p>\n

The wrinkle is the lugers have to hit a pad at the bottom of the track to both stop their clock and open the gates for their teammates at the top of the track.<\/p>\n

Missing the pad means disqualification, which is what happened to South Korea on Saturday.<\/p>\n

\u201cHistorically, we always have done well in the team relays over the past eight years,\u201d Canadian head coach Wolfgang Staudinger said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf they put three consistent runs down then they are definitely in the mix. With consistency, we will medal.\u201d<\/p>\n

Germany swept all four events in Calgary with Huefner, Felix Loch and the doubles team of Toni Eggert and Sascha Benecken winning the relay as well as their individual races.<\/p>\n

Germany has a long and deep history of success in luge, as well as superior familiarity with many of the world’s sliding tracks.<\/p>\n

Of the approximately 16 tracks in regular rotation for World Cup and world championships, four are in Germany and three others are easily accessible over the borders in Austria and Switzerland.<\/p>\n

But the Olympic track in Pyeongchang is only a year old.<\/p>\n

It is as unfamiliar to the Europeans as it is to the North Americans, so Olympic medals will come down to starts and driving.<\/p>\n

Edney, who will compete in his fourth Olympic Games, won bronze in a test event in Pyeongchang last season.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe track can be quite tricky,\u201d Gough said. \u201cIt will be interesting to see what it’s like when we get there and who adapts.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Canadian team heads to the next World Cup stop Friday and Saturday in Lake Placid, N.Y.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

CALGARY\u2014 Alex Gough’s fist shot into the air after she crossed the finish line of Calgary’s sliding track. Canada’s most …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":137757,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[44],"tags":[37935,37934,4280],"class_list":["post-137756","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-alex-gough","tag-canadas-lugers-double-up-on-silver-medals-at-world-cup-in-calgary","tag-world-cup","mauthors-donna-spencer","mauthors-the-canadian-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137756","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=137756"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137756\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/137757"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=137756"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=137756"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=137756"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}