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USA Luge Captures Overall World Cup Team Bronze Medal
By Jon Lundin // February 9, 2007
WINTERBERG, Germany --- USA Luge came away with the 2007 overall luge World Cup team competition bronze medal following a fourth place showing in Friday’s, Feb. 9, team relay race held in Winterberg, Germany.
Friday’s U.S. lineup featured the doubles team of Mark Grimmette (Muskegon, Mich.) and Brian Martin (Palo Alto, Calif.) and singles sliders Ashley Hayden (Westborough, Mass.) and Tony Benshoof (White Bear Lake, Minn.). The trio of sleds combined to race to a total time of two minutes, 29.998 seconds, only .032 seconds behind Team Austria for the event’s bronze medal. The Austrian squad, which featured Tobias Schiegl and Markus Schiegl, Nina Reithmayer and Manual Pfister, raced to a total time of 2:29.966.
The team relay’s format featured a constant running clock and each slider began their run once a signal activated the start gate at the top of the course. The winner was determined by the fastest time, measured to the single thousandth of a second.
Team Germany captured the event’s gold medal and the 2007 crown. The German roster included Patric Leitner and Alexander Resch, Silke Kraushaar-Pielach and David Moeller. The three sleds clocked a total time of 2:29.083.
Team Russia’s roster of Michail Kuzmich and Jurij Veselov, Alexandra Rodionova and Albert Demtschenko posted a total time of 2:29.684 en route to the event’s silver medal.
Team Germany wrapped up the four-race team competition series with 300 points, 30 points in front of Team Canada, who captured the overall silver medal following their fifth place finish. Team USA picked up 260 points on its way to the overall bronze medal.
Luge World Cup racing continues tomorrow, Saturday, with both the doubles and women’s singles events, before concluding with Sunday’s men’s singles race.
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