Germany's Hackl leads luge despite booties protest

February 8, 1998

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From the Olympics Toword Tomorrow

Germany's Hackl leads luge despite booties protest

(Asakawa, Nagano City)
14:00- Start

German luge wizard Georg Hackl took a big step toward gaining his third straight Olympic men's singles title Sunday but was surrounded by protests over the alleged unavailability of his yellow boots.

Hackl flashed through the Spiral track in northern Nagano and came away with the fastest times in both races on the first day of competition. His aggregate time of 1 minute, 39.192 seconds gave him a wide lead of more than two-10ths of a second over Italy's Armin Zoeggeler.

After the race, officials from the U.S. and Canadian teams launched protests to race officials, claiming that Hackl's new aerodynamic footwear have not been made available to all teams.

Race officials rejected the protest, however. Harro Esmarch, press officer of the International Luge Federation, told Kyodo News that the same boots are also being used by the Japanese team.

The boots are manufactured by the German sportswear company Adidas.

Markus Prock of Austria, silver medalist behind Hackl in the last two Olympics, clocked 1:39.593 for third place another 0.2 second behind in the midway standings with a pair of races to go Monday.

Shigeaki Ushijima, the only entrant from the host country, felt fairly satisfied with his 17th place showing. If he finishes at a higher rank Monday it will be the best Japanese performance in the event in the Olympics.

''If I can just travel the way I did today on Monday, then my final ranking should be higher,'' Ushijima said.

Sixteen-year-old Shiva Keshavan, India's sole competitor at the Nagano Olympics, was 29th. (Kyodo News)

Results of men's single luge after the first two runs Sunday in the 18th Olympic Winter Games at Spiral, Nagano (course 1,326 meters, vertical drop 114 meters):

1. Georg Hackl, Germany 1 minute, 39.192 seconds (first run 49.619, second run 49.573)

2. Armin Zoeggeler, Italy 1:39.405 (49.715, 49.690)

3. Markus Prock, Austria 1:39.593 (49.861, 49.732)

4. Jens Mueller, Germany 1:39.593 (49.954, 49.700)

5. Markus Kleinheinz, Austria 1:39.795 (50.016, 49.779)

6. Wendel Suckow, U.S. 1:39.940 (50.069, 49.871)

7. Gerhard Gleirscher, Austria 1:39.977 (50.161, 49.816)

8. Reinhold Rainer, Italy 1:40.113 (50.105, 50.008)

9. Norbert Huber, Italy 1:40.229 (50.100, 50.129)

10. Albert Demtchenko, Russia 1:40.235 (50.224, 50.011)

11. Adam Heidt, U.S. 1:40.300 (50.401, 49.899)

12. Mikael Holm, Sweden 1:40.521 (50.324, 50.197)

13. Karsten Albert, Germany 1:40.525 (50.353, 50.172)

14. Larry Dolan, U.S. 1:40.721 (50.558, 50.163)

15. Guntis Rekis, Latvia 1:40.972 (50.676, 50.296)

16. Clay Ives, Canada 1:40.980 (50.632, 50.348)

17. Shigeaki Ushijima, Japan 1:41.152 (50.747, 50.405)

18. Bengt Walden, Sweden 1:41.229 (50.750, 50.479)

19. Reto Gilly, Switzerland 1:41.240 (50.594, 50.646)

20. Martins Rubenis, Latvia 1:41.249 (50.758, 50.491)

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29. Shiva Keshavan, India 1:44.442 (52.315, 52.127)

30. Lee Gi Ro, South Korea 1:47.174 (54.299, 52.875)

31. Hsieh Hsiang-chun, Taiwan 1:47.285 (54.192, 53.093)

32. Kang Kwang Bae, South Korea 1:47.321 (53.492, 53.829)

33. Lee Yong, South Korea 1:49.680 (54.842, 54.838)

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