2014 Olympics – Men’s Luge – Runs 1 & 2

February 8, 2014 ken Luge News, News 0

From Sochi, Russia

Felix Loch all but dominated the 2013/2014 FIL men’s luge season, winning the World Cup title without having to race in Sigulda, and after two heats in Sochi the German is the man to beat once again.  Loch leaves the first day of sliding as the new Sanki Sliding Center luge track record holder, scoring the first ever sub-52 second time with a 51.964 in his second heat to take a .294 lead over Albert Demchenko.  While the majority of sliders saw their second heat times improved over their first, the Russian dropped a tenth of a second from his first run to fall into second with two runs to go.  The only other man with a combined sub-1:45 time is Italian Armin Zöggeler.  The World Cup runner up is looking to score a medal in the same event for a record sixth games.

German Andi Langenhan made a huge leap in his second run, jumping up from eighth to fourth with a huge second run.  Reinhard Eggard is fifth, leading the way for Austria.  Just behind him are the other two Russians in the field, Semen Pavlichenko and Aleksander Peretyagin.  The first man off the start, Dominik Fischnaller of Italy sits eighth, with Wolfgang Kindl of Austria ninth and Samuel Edney of Canada jumping from 14th to tenth to round out the top ten.

American Chris Mazdzer sits 13th after the first day of sliding.  The American was tenth after run 1, and despite picking up a bit of time in his second run, it wasn’t enough to hold his position.  The good news for Mazdzer is that he’s well within a tenth of a second of a top-nine going into the third and fourth heats tomorrow.  His teammates Tucker West and Aidan Kelly sit 23rd and 26th after two heats.  Both sliders picked up some time from their first heats, but not enough to pick up any positions.

Aside from Samuel Edney’s performance, it’s been a tough start to the sliding events for Canada.  Mitchel Malyk and John Fennell both had clean sets of runs, but the speed just wasn’t there.  After the first day, Mitchel Malyk sits 27th, while teammate John Fennell is 30th.

Results after two heats:

Pos Name Nation Draw Run 1 Run 2 Total
1 Felix Loch GER 10 52.185 51.964 1:44.149
2 Albert Demchenko RUS 7 52.170 52.273 1:44.443
3 Armin Zöggeler ITA 9 52.506 52.387 1:44.893
4 Andi Langenhan GER 12 52.707 52.480 1:45.187
5 Reinhard Eggard AUT 3 52.564 52.630 1:45.194
6 Semen Pavlichenko RUS 8 52.660 52.593 1:45.253
7 Aleksander Peretyagin RUS 16 52.675 52.590 1:45.265
8 Dominik Fischnaller ITA 1 52.729 52.540 1:45.269
9 Wolfgang Kindl AUT 2 52.586 52.714 1:45.300
10 Samuel Edney CAN 11 52.783 52.546 1:45.329
11 Martins Rubenis LAT 6 52.775 52.560 1:45.335
12 Gregory Carigiet SUI 14 52.775 52.579 1:45.354
13 Chris Mazdzer USA 4 52.744 52.643 1:45.387
14 David Möller GER 5 52.781 52.865 1:45.646
15 Daniel Pfistser AUT 18 52.925 52.802 1:45.727
16 Inars Kivlenieks LAT 19 52.872 52.927 1:45.799
17 Emanuel Rieder ITA 23 52.981 52.875 1:45.856
18 Thor Haug Noerbech NOR 15 53.014 52.859 1:45.873
19 Jo Alexander Koppang NOR 21 53.028 52.894 1:45.922
20 Toennes Rolfsen NOR 22 53.043 52.938 1:45.981
21 Kristaps Maurins LAT 17 53.144 52.923 1:46.067
22 Jozef Ninis SVK 13 53.143 52.932 1:46.075
23 Tucker West USA 25 53.142 52.966 1:46.108
24 Maciej Kurowski POL 24 53.234 52.988 1:46.222
25 Ondrej Hyman CZE 20 53.222 53.145 1:46.367
26 Aidan Kelly USA 27 53.275 53.192 1:46.467
27 Mitchel Malyk CAN 33 53.367 53.401 1:46.768
28 Valentin Cretu ROU 35 53.562 53.279 1:46.841
29 Andriy Kis UKR 28 53.533 53.358 1:46.891
30 John Fennell CAN 32 53.350 53.561 1:46.911
31 Alexander Ferlazzo AUS 26 53.528 53.686 1:47.214
32 Hidenari Kanayama JPN 31 53.626 53.663 1:47.289
33 Bruno Banani TGA 30 53.656 53.637 1:47.293
34 Andriy Mandziy UKR 36 53.653 53.660 1:47.313
35 Donghyeon Kim KOR 37 54.207 54.603 1:48.810
36 Bogdan Macovei MDA 29 54.591 54.271 1:48.862
37 Shiva Keshavan IOP 38 53.905 55.203 1:49.108
38 Stanislav Benyov BUL 34 55.040 55.006 1:50.046
39 Te-An Lein TPE 39 62.961 55.315 1:58.276