Sochi luge medal buoys Canada’s Olympic hopes
Quebecers Harvey, Bilodeau, Kingsbury capture medals during busy weekend
The Olympic podium in luge has been barren territory for Canadian sliders since the sport’s Games debut in 1964, but a World Cup in Sochi on the weekend has confirmed again that a medal in 2014 is a real possibility.
Canada was third in the team relay Sunday, a day after the rising young doubles tandem of Tristan Walker and Justin Snith matched a career-best with a fourth-place finish in the season-ending World Cup.
Three weeks ago, Canada earned a silver in the team relay at the world championships at Whistler and also got a bronze from Alex Gough in the women’s race.
“The ultimate goal is for success (at Sochi) next year, of course, but the truth is things are so tight,” Canadian head coach Wolfgang Staudinger said in a release. “You can walk away with two (Olympic) medals if all goes right, or finish off the podium twice and not have done much wrong.”
Germany won the final World Cup team relay, making it six wins in six races this season in an event that combines the time of one men’s sled, one women’s sled and a doubles sled. The athletes touch a lever over the track at the finish to open the start gate for the next slider.
Germany’s time was two minutes, 51.553 seconds. Russia was second in 2:51.709 and Canada, which had two second-place finishes earlier this season, was third in 2:51.954.
Devon Kershaw and Alex Harvey missed the podium by a boot length Sunday in trying to defend their team sprint crown at the FIS world Nordic ski championships at Val di Fiemme, Italy.
The duo were fourth behind teams from Russia, Sweden and Kazakhstan, with the latter squad taking third in a photo finish.
Kershaw, a Sudbury, Ont., native now living in Canmore, Alta., broke a pole in the transition area going out for his second of three loops, dropping the Canadians to ninth in the field of 10 that raced the final. But Kershaw had the Canadians up to fifth after his last lap.
Harvey, of St-Ferreol-lesNeiges, pushed hard up the final punishing climb to get into fourth, but couldn’t edge past the skier from Kazakhstan at the line.
Americans Kikkan Randall and Jessica Diggins won the women’s team sprint. Canada’s Perianne Jones and Daria Gaiazova were 13th.
On Saturday, Harvey was 13th in the men’s 30-kilometre skiathlon, which was won by Dario Cologna of Switzerland. BILODEAU MEDALS TWICE: Olympic champion Alex Bilodeau, of Rosemere, earned a silver medal Sunday in a World Cup dual moguls event at Inawashiro, Japan, one day after finishing third in the single moguls.
Bilodeau had a terrific final run against Bradley Wilson of the U.S., executing strong tricks off both jumps, but was beaten on speed points. Wilson had eliminated World Cup points leader Mikael Kingsbury, of Deux-Montagnes, in the quarter-finals.
Kingsbury won the single moguls Saturday.