MIKEL ECHEGARAY DIEZ TOPS TIME SHEETS IN LUGE

9 July, 2022, MONTICIANO (Italy): Qualifying and the bid for top spot in Luge produced a thrilling two-way fight between Spain’s Mikel Echegaray and Malaysia’s Abdil Mahdzan, with the Spanish champion coming out on top. “It was a good qualifying between me and Abdil,” Echegaray said. “I had a gap of about three seconds after the first run so I was quite relaxed. But after the second run there was nothing between us so I had to push. He didn’t improve and I did but it was so close. So for the race it’s going to be quite equal I think, so we see what happens.”

The Spaniard edged his rival by 2.95s on the first run with a time of 1:41.13s but Mahdzan closed the gap to just 0.01s on his second as both riders went quicker, Echegaray posting a 1:39.73s run and then improving further on his final outing with 1:39.08 to take top spot by 0.66s.

Canada’s former world champion Kolby Parks improved throughout the session getting quicker and quicker, but came up just short in third, 1.98s off the pace with a time of 1:41.06s.

British rider George Cheeseman went fourth quickest with a time of 1:43.59s set on his second run, 4.51s off top spot, with Spaniard Juan Calvo Lazaro a further 1.48s down in fifth, Italy’s Andrea Morellini’s time of 1:45.47s rounding out the top six.