German teenager Felix Loch easily held off five-time world champion and two-time Olympic champ Armin Zoeggeler of Italy to win his second straight title at the luge world championships on Saturday.
“I just thought I’d have to do two solid runs, that’s all,” said 19-year-old Loch, who tore two shoulder ligaments during a November crash on the Olympic track at Whistler. “I’m trying to win a World Cup.”
Loch, the youngest world champ in history a year ago at 18, posted a winning time of 1 minute, 44.336 seconds in two trips down the 20-turn course at Mount Van Hoevenberg.
PHOTO: EPA
Zoeggeler finished in 1:44.549, 0.123 seconds behind. Austria’s Daniel Pfister finished in 1:45.037 to win bronze, nearly three-quarters of a second behind the winner.
After the first run, the race for gold was between only Loch and Zoeggeler as they separated themselves from the rest of the field. A year ago, Loch, David Moeller and Andi Langenhan led a German sweep at the worlds in Oberhof, Germany.
Both Moeller and Langenhan were out of gold-medal contention after Saturday’s first run, trailing their teammate by more than a half-second.
They had plenty of company because Loch and Zoeggeler were in another zone. Even Germany’s Jan Eichhorn, one of four sliders to break the track record on the first run, was more than a quarter of a second — an eternity in luge — behind Loch entering the final run.
Zoeggeler thought his chances for victory were slim at best.
“I saw that Felix had a mistake in his first run and I thought if he made a good second run it would be difficult to climb to the top,” said the 35-year-old Zoeggeler, who has won four of the past five World Cup races and 42 overall in his impressive career. “I won second place with two solid, constant runs. For me, it was not possible. Felix was better.”
Pfister began the competition by clocking 52.271 seconds, besting the track mark of 52.278 set on Friday by Canada’s Sam Edney.
Zoeggeler, his silver helmet gleaming in the Adirondack Mountain air, slid next and clocked 51.982. Four sleds later, Loch zoomed down in 51.939 to take a slim 0.043 seconds lead that in the end proved insurmountable.
“This one means more because it was not on a home track like last year,” Loch said. “I have no time to celebrate now because of the team relay [set to be held yesterday], but I will find something, even at 19.”
NO HARD FEELINGS: Taiwan’s Lin Hsiang-ti and Indonesia’s Dhinda Amartya Pratiwi embraced after fighting to a tense and rare 30-29 final game in their Uber Cup match The Taiwanese men’s team on Wednesday fought back from the brink of elimination to defeat Denmark in Group C and advance to the quarter-finals of the Thomas Cup, while the women’s team were to face South Korea after press time last night in the Uber Cup quarter-finals in Horsens, Denmark. In the first match, Taiwan’s top shuttler Chou Tien-chen faced a familiar opponent in world No. 3 Anders Antonsen. It was their 16th head-to-head matchup, with the Dane taking his fourth victory in a row against former world No. 2 Chou, winning 21-14, 13-21, 21-15 in 1 hour, 22 minutes. The
Jannik Sinner continued his quest to become the first man in history to win five Masters 1000 tournaments in a row with a 6-2, 6-3 victory over Danish qualifier Elmer Moller at the Madrid Open on Sunday. The world leader extended his winning streak to 19 matches, a run that began early March in Indian Wells, and he has captured 24 consecutive victories at the Masters 1000 level, dating back to the Paris Masters last October. Searching for a maiden title at this level on clay, Sinner advanced to the round of 16 at the Caja Magica with a 77-minute performance against
When Paddy Dwyer arrived in China in 1976, crowds jostled to catch a glimpse of him and his companions — the first Western soccer team to play in the country. China was emerging from the chaos of the Cultural Revolution, and on the brink of market reforms that would take the country from economic stagnation to explosive growth. “All we could see was lines of people running beside our bus, trying to look in the windows, to see their first visual of a white person,” he said. “It was all bicycles,” he said. “There were very few cars to be seen.” Dwyer,
Tennis players are facing an unexpected opponent at the Madrid Open. A stomach virus or food poisoning has affected Iga Swiatek, Coco Gauff, Marin Cilic and others, raising concerns. World No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka avoided an upset by Naomi Osaka on the court on Monday and said she is trying to avoid illness by sticking to a diet of chicken breasts, rice and salad. The rumor among the players was bad shrimp tacos were to blame. Sabalenka knocked on wood for luck and said, “So far, so good. I heard that I have to avoid those tacos,” she laughed, adding “I stick to the
RSS