Music: {allcanada} CANADA'S GOUGH CLAIMS BRONZE AT SEASON-OPENING LUGE RACE

Saturday, November 26, 2011

{allcanada} CANADA'S GOUGH CLAIMS BRONZE AT SEASON-OPENING LUGE RACE

IGLS, Austria -- Alex Gough of Calgary raced to a bronze medal Saturday at the season-opening women's World Cup luge race.

Olympic champion Tatjana Huefner led Anke Wischnewski in a 1-2 German finish.

Huefner, who won seven of nine races last season in capturing her fourth overall World Cup title, had the fastest time in both runs and finished in one minute, 19.353 seconds to beat Wischnewski by 0.201.

Gough finshed another 0.074 back in third, and former world champion Erin Hamlin of the U.S. was seventh, 0.574 behind Huefner.

Peter Penz and Georg Fischler won the men's doubles in one minute, 19.099 seconds. The Austrians, who led after the first heat, defeated Vladislav Yuzhakov and Vladimir Makhnutin of Russia by 0.076.

Double Olympic champions Andreas and Wolgang Linger of Austria were seventh after the opening run but were fastest in the second run to finish third in 1:19.187.

The World Cup meet ends with a men's singles race and a team relay event on Sunday.