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WFG Sponsored USA Luge Takes Bronze in Relay Event

Russia Wins in Men's Singles

For Immediate Release December 7, 2008

[SIGULDA, LATVIA] — The World Financial Group (WFG) sponsored United States Luge team of Bengt Walden, Ashley Walden and Mark Grimmette/Brian Martin won bronze today in the season's first Suzuki Team Relay event.

Relay competition is similar to the retired team competition format in that each team enters one male, one female and one doubles team in the race, but with one major difference – sliders two and three can only begin their run once a gate in front of them drops. The gate drops when the previous slider punches a touch-pad hung over the track when crossing the finish line. In regular team competition, each run is completely separate of the others, meaning athletes can take their time and start when they are comfortable, but not in relay competition. The clock starts when the first athlete begins the run and doesn't stop until the third sled hits the touch-pad.

"We had trained a little bit on the reaction times this summer which was a big help," Ashley said. "Obviously it's a huge advantage, the quicker you can get out of those gates, the quicker you're going to cross the finish line. So that was really my focus for the run…and I think I did it, so it worked out well."

The U.S. put together three solid runs. Bengt (Westborough, Mass. and Lake Placid, N.Y.) led off for the U.S. As he crossed the finish line and hit the touch-pad, he dropped the start-gate for his wife, Ashley (Westborough, Mass. and Lake Placid, N.Y.), to take her run. She followed suit, releasing the tandem of Grimmette (Muskegon, Mich. and Lake Placid. N.Y.) and Martin (Palo Alto, Calif. and Lake Placid, N.Y.) for the final leg. The two-time Olympic medalists, stopped the clock in two minutes, 20.032 seconds, good for third place.

The Austrian team took gold finishing in 2:19.585, slightly ahead of Germany's time of 2:19.691. Russia was poised to make a run at the medals, but Albert Demtschenko, who won the men's singles race, missed the touch-pad as he finished, disqualifying his team.

In the men's singles discipline, Italian Armin Zoggeler won silver with a combined two-run time of 1:39.411, just 0.146 seconds behind Demtschenko, while Germany's David Moller completed the podium with his bronze medal time of 1:39.500.

While Bengt and Tony Benshoof (White Bear Lake, Minn.) may not have medaled, they did improve upon last week's finishes in Igls, Austria. Last week Benshoof placed 24th, but this week moved up to 14th while Bengt improved from 21st to 15th. Bengt is now 18th in the overall standings, while Benshoof sits one place behind in 19th. Robby Huerbin, who did not qualify for Sunday’s finals, was credited with a 33rd place finish in the race.

World Cup action continues with the final race before the Christmas break, Dec. 13-14, 2008 in Winterberg, Germany.

For more information on the Fastest Sport on Ice®, log on to www.usaluge.org.

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