Crashes mar Otto's lead
ByReuters
Published 13/02/2006 at 20:27 GMT
Defending champion Sylke Otto led a German charge in the opening runs of the women's singles Olympic luge competition on Monday, which were marred by three crashes. The most spectacular occured in the second run and involved American Samantha Retrosi, who
LUGE 2006 Torino 2006 Single Women GERMANY Otto
Image credit: dpa
She also had several cuts.
"She has head trauma with mild concussion, she is alert and conscious and she has a cut on her chin and her left knee," said a spokeswoman for the organising committee of the Turin Games (TOROC).
An official from the International Luge Federation (FIL) denied earlier reports that Retrosi had been knocked unconscious and said her injuries were not serious.
The 36-year-old Otto was fastest in both runs down the treacherous Cesana track and topped the standings with a combined time of one minute 33.861 seconds before Tuesday's final two runs.
"I had a few problems on the upper part but overall, I'm quite pleased," said Otto.
Silke Kraushaar, the Olympic champion from 1998, was in second position, 0.268 second back, with fellow German Tatjana Huefner in third place, 0.517 second off the pace.
Kraushaar was in fourth after the first run but made amends by nearly matching Otto's time in the second.
DREAMS SHATTERED
Newcomer Huefner, the big hope of German luge at 22, was second fastest in the first run but had to be content with the sixth-best time in the second after a poor start.
"My spikes got stuck at the start and I lost time and speed but in the lower part it was all right," she said.
American Courtney Zablocki, who was in third place after the first run, ended the day in fourth, 0.004 second behind Kraushaar, and still stood a chance of denying Germany their second consecutive sweep of the Olympic medals.
The dreams of local favourite Anastasia Oberstolz-Antonova were shattered when she crashed in a curve on the bottom section of her first run.
Oberstolz-Antonova, the best non-German in the overall World Cup standings in fourth place, was regarded as one of few women capable of upsetting the super power of women's luge in the two-day event.
The 24-year-old Italian needed three stitches on her left elbow.
Czech woman Marketa Jeriova also came to grief on the first run and the competition started without the oldest woman at the Turin Games, Anne Abernathy, who had to pull out because of a broken wrist.
The 52-year-old from the Virgin Islands affectionately called 'Grandma Luge', who was looking forward to her sixth Olympics, fractured her right wrist and broke the right runner of her sled in a crash in training on Sunday. Poised drop
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