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Hannah back on track

 

Hannah back on track

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AOC
Hannah back on track

Australian luge representative Hannah Campbell-Pegg has joined her fellow sliders in returning to action at the Whistler Sliding Centre the day after the death of Georgian Nodar Kumaritashvili in a training accident.

Australian luge representative Hannah Campbell-Pegg has joined her fellow sliders in returning to action at the Whistler Sliding Centre the day after the death of Georgian Nodar Kumaritashvili in a training accident.

The men took another two training runs on Saturday morning ahead of their first two (of four) competition runs on Saturday night, but started from what had been the women’s start point, a little further down the track.

The women then took to the track for their third and fourth training runs (the first two were on Thursday night), starting from curve six, meaning a slower start and overall reduced speeds throughout their runs.

“It was good to get back on the ice,” Campbell-Pegg said following her two runs. “Everybody’s still trying to process what happened and I think our (sliding) community is in a state of shock, so I don’t think anybody really knows how to react right now.

“The runs were different. I’m trying to get used to the different speeds, steering is off a little and I was off a little bit, but the start is definitely a little more technical. I think it’s definitely going to be who can make four good starts will be up there.”

Campbell-Pegg, who is seeded in the 15-slider Group B, improved her time and placing from 43.488 seconds and 14th on training run three to 43.353 seconds and 10th on run four.

Her slightly slower first run may have been partly because she had to get ready quite quickly.

“I literally got off the truck and they said ‘You’re on deck’ and I said ‘I was told the start order was being switched around so I would have at least two sleds wait’ so I was like ‘No, I’m not ready to go yet’, so they gave me two more minutes.”

“I think everybody was wondering ‘what should we do, what’s right to do’ but I think he would have wanted us to keep racing.”

The fastest slider in Campbell-Pegg’s training group was American Erin Hamlin, clocking 42.216 seconds on run three, while in training Group A, German double world champion and Torino 2006 bronze medallist Tatjana Huefner set the pace with a time of 42.068 seconds.

After two more training runs on Sunday, the women’s luge event starts with two runs on Monday afternoon (from 5pm local time, midday Tuesday AET), with the medals decided after the final two runs on Tuesday afternoon.

Murray Brust
AOC-Whistler

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