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Ferlazzo flies as Loch dominates men's Luge

 

Ferlazzo flies as Loch dominates men's Luge

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Ferlazzo flies as Loch dominates men's Luge

LUGE: Alex Ferlazzo has put down two more good runs at the Sanki Sliding Centre on Day 2, to finish his debut Olympic Luge campaign in style.

LUGE: Alex Ferlazzo has put down two more good runs at the Sanki Sliding Centre on Day 2, to finish his debut Olympic Luge campaign in style.

The 18-year-old from Townsville was competitive amongst his better credentialed, more experienced competitors, and held his own to finish 33rd out of a field of 39.

“I'm happy now that it's over although unfortunately I didn't put down two clean runs at the end,” Ferlazzo said with mixed emotions. “I had a skid on the second run between corners 11 and 14, and I hit a couple of walls on the first run today - but that's the sport.”

He finished with a time total after four runs of 3 minutes 34.044 seconds, 6.518 behind the eventual winner, Felix Loch of Germany. Having only been doing the sport for four years, with the added obscurity of coming from Tropical North Queensland, Ferlazzo’s results are impressive to say the least.

“I just wanted to make my country proud,” he said. “To broadcast to my country what Luge is, and to show them that there's a lot more to it than just laying down and going down a slippery slide. It's not like that - that's for sure.”

Ferlazzo competed in the inaugural Winter Youth Olympics two years ago in Innsbruck, and as one of the youngest in the field here in Sochi, he is now inspired to look towards PyeongChang 2018 and beyond. 

“Innsbruck was a beautiful stepping stone, that's for sure,” he said. “It was great to start in Innsbruck, it really inspired me to carry on all the way to here. It taught me a lot. Without Innsbruck I wouldn't have been able to do what I did here today.

“There’s four years to go until the next Olympics and I'm only 18 now. I’ll be 22 then...watch this space!

“PyeongChang is the goal. That's the long term goal. There are a lot of short term goals in between including getting a lot stronger, a bit heavier and a lot faster, having a lot better equipment and a lot more training.”
Looking at the top athletes in the world in Luge, size, speed and experience is clearly the key. And Ferlazzo is willing to do whatever it takes to be up there with the best.
“Lots of weights and time in the gym,” he said of his overall plan. “And lots of eating – I’m looking forward to that! Just getting a lot more experience is important. These guys start sliding when they are kids. I saw a photo of Loch when he started [at age eight] and my sled would be bigger than him. It's time on the course that counts. Four years is a lot of time. I’m looking forward to it.”

For Ferlazzo there is no shortage of Luge legends to look up to.

Germany’s Loch took the gold and glory in Sochi, dominating both days’ competition to finish with a total aggregate time of 3:27.526.

The 24-year-old, who was the youngest ever World Champion (at 18 in 2008) and the youngest ever Olympic Champion (at 20 in 2010) can now add defending his Olympic gold to his impressive resumé. Loch joins Armin Zoeggeler of Italy on two gold medals in the event, with just Georg Hackl of Germany on more with three. Hackl also just happens to be Loch’s coach.

"I try to go my own way and leave my own footprints," Loch said, after being compared to Hackl.

"It was very difficult [to win], in Russian territory, against Russia and against Armin Zoeggeler. I'm so relieved now."

Zoeggeler did not miss out on a glory at the track tonight either. The 40-year-old Italian Luger took bronze in 3:28.797, his sixth Olympic medal from six Games. Zoeggeler has competed at every Games since Lillehammer 1994 and winning his sixth medal wrote a new chapter of history in the sport of Luge.

Thrilling the vocal Russian crowd, hometown favourite Albert Demchenko won his second silver medal in the event in 3:28.002, having also done so in Torino 2006.

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