By Canadian Press

Young Canadian squad races to fifth in World Cup luge relay in Germany

Jan 2, 2022 | 3:36 PM

WINTERBERG, Germany — Canada’s young luge team raced to fifth place in the relay at a World Cup on Sunday.

Trinity Ellis, a 19-year-old from Pemberton, B.C., Reid Watts, a 23-year-old from Whistler, B.C., and Calgarians Devin Wardrope (19) and Cole Zajanski (20) had a combined time of two minutes 25.587 seconds.

“We are happy with the result even though our run wasn’t the best,” said Wardrope. “Getting the experience of racing the relay now is going to be so beneficial for us in our future sliding career. With the limited runs and experience we have on this track, it was good to see that we could put down a run while doing our best to minimize mistakes on the way down.”

Latvia won gold with 2:24.294. Austria was second in 2:24.652, while the Americans took the bronze medal (2:24.802).

“Being such a young team, it was good for all of us to see that we can still be competitive. We know that with a little more experience and consistency we can push higher up the leaderboard,” said Wardrope.

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Canada was fifth at the Beijing Olympic test event in October.

The relay consists of one women’s sled, one men’s sled, and one doubles sled. Athletes hit a paddle at the finish line that allows the next member of the team to begin their run at the top of the track.

Earlier in the day, Ellis was 15th in women’s singles.

The Canadian team has been in a rebuilding period since the program’s first double-medal performance at the 2018 PyeongChang Olympics.

The World Cup circuit now heads to Sigulda, Latvia.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 2, 2022.

The Canadian Press