US posts three top-10 results at Calgary Luge World Cup; Italians lead way

CALGARY, Canada (Feb. 16, 2009) - The eighth World Cup of the 2008-2009 season came to a close yesterday evening with U.S. slider Bengt Walden sealing a tie of his best-ever result in a World Cup race. Walden (Westborough, Mass. and Lake Placid, N.Y.), a 2002 Olympian, finished seventh with a time of one minute, 31.273 seconds, leaving him in 11th place in the overall standings with an accumulated 250 points. Over Bengt’s last six international races, including the World Championships, he has posted a sixth place finish (at the Worlds), two seventh place finishes, and a ninth place finish for the best stretch of results in his career.

Racing in the men’s singles event, Italian Armin Zöggeler’s victory allowed him to win his eighth career overall World Cup title after crossing the finish line with a two-run combined time of 1:30.375 seconds. Following Zöggeler was Germany’s Felix Loch, who recently won the men’s singles World Championships in Lake Placid, NY. He finished with a combined time of 1:30.690 seconds — and maintained fifth place in the overall standings with 410 points. Coming in third place was Russian racer Albert Demtschenko with a time of 1:30.796. Demtschenko currently sits seventh overall. U.S. racers Chris Mazdzer and Tony Benshoof finished 20th and 21st, respectively.

After a week of sickness with a 103 degree fever, Dan Joye (Carmel, N.Y.) managed to pull off an eighth- place finish with teammate Christian Niccum (Woodinville, Wash.) in the doubles event. Their fifth-ranked second run allowed the duo to move up one spot from their ninth place opening heat. The duo is currently13th in the overall standings with 204 points. The next U.S. team of Mark Grimmette (Muskegon, Mich. and Lake Placid, N.Y.) and Brian Martin (Palo Alto, Calif. and Lake Placid, N.Y.) followed closely behind Niccum and Joye with a ninth-place result. In the overall standings, Grimmette and Martin maintained eighth place, having earned 325 points. Matt Mortensen (Huntington Station, N.Y.) and Preston Griffal (Salt Lake City, UT) racing in their first world cup of the season, placed 15th.

The Italians kept up their success and simultaneously clinched the overall World Cup in the doubles event, when the team of Christian Oberstolz and Patrick Gruber finishing first in a combined time of 1:28.476. The overall world cup title is the second of their career, and they have currently earned 680 points. The doubles team of Peter Penz and Georg Fischler claimed second place with a time of 1:28.705 seconds. The Austrian racers are seventh in overall standings with 406 points. Italy’s doubles team of Gerhard Plankensteiner and Oswald Haselrieder, winners of last week’s World Championships, placed third with a final time of 1:28.734 seconds and is fifth in the overall standings with 444 points.

The international season has one more stop with the final world cup of the season in Whistler, B.C., Canada next weekend. The event will also be the formal ‘test event’ for the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Organizing Committee and the only time the world’s best luge athletes will race on the 2010 Olympic track prior to next winter’s Olympic games.

For audio, please visit our links: http://www.usaluge.org/team/DanJoyePostCalgary.mp3
http://www.usaluge.org/team/BengtPostCalgary.mp3

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Tags: Bengt Walden, Brian Martin, Calgary World Cup, Chris Mazdzer, Christian Niccum, Dan Joye, Mark Grimmette, Tony Benshoof, USA Luge