Ice-cool Kiwi beats Europeans at their own luge game
Jack Leslie has produced New Zealand’s best result in a senior luge event.
The 19-year-old Cantabrian finished fifth in the 2017 Natural Track Luge World Championship in Romania at the weekend.
A junior competing in the senior ranks, Leslie hurtled down the 1km track near Vatra Dornei in 1m 17.98s, finishing 0.6s off a podium spot.
However, Leslie was a mere 0.08s behind defending world champion Patrick Pigneter who finished fourth.
Italy’s Alex Gruber won the world championship by 0.75s from Juri Talihk of Russia with Austrian Thomas Kammerlander claiming bronze.
Unlike the artificial, refrigerated tracks most would associate with luge, natural tracks are usually forest or mountain roads covered with snow that is packed down and turned into an icy surface simply by applying water.
Fog and warm temperatures at the Romanian venue led to the track deteriorating, forcing the cancellation of the second run.
Leslie’s fifth place surpasses the effort of two-time Winter Olympian Angela Paul who finished 11th at an artificial track World Cup event at Lake Placid in 200.
It also betters his own previous best of 12th in Natural Track World Cup events at Deutschnofen, Italy a week earlier and Laas, also in Italy in 2015.
“I’m so stoked with my result,” said an elated Leslie.
“With a bit of luck on my side from an early start, but also a pretty good run, I was able to get this result.
“It’s really the icing on the cake for what has been very satisfying season for me”.
Last month, Leslie finished third in the Junior World Cup series, the title he won in 2016 and was the silver medallist in last year’s Junior World Championship.
NZ Olympic Luge president Geoff Balme hailed the performance as an amazing result for Leslie.
“The three powerhouse nations in Natural Luge are Italy, Austria and Russia,” Balme said.
“Each [nation] had five athletes competing in this race, so to finish ahead of three Italians, four Austrians and four Russians is a great effort and shows how much further Jack has developed this season.”
Leslie will remain on the senior circuit, when he competes in the final round of the Natural Track Luge World Cup in Umhausen, Austria on February 11-12.