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From the Olympics Toword Tomorrow
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Hackl plays safe to claim 3rd straight Olympic title
14:00- Start
Georg Hackl of Germany decided not to challenge his limits on the fourth and final run of the Olympic men's singles luge competition Monday.
He still came away with the fastest time and a third straight winter Olympics gold medal.
The overnight leader clocked 49.614 and 49.630 seconds over the Spiral track in northern Nagano to sweep all four races with the best times of the event, posting an overwhelming triumph of more than half a second with an aggregate time of 3 minutes, 18.436 seconds.
''I was sure I would win if I had a normal run and it's possible to lose a whole second in one run due to a single mistake,'' Hackl said of what could be his last run down an ice chute in an Olympics.
''I was afraid of that and that's why I tried to avoid this from happening,'' added the 31-year-old German soldier who became the sixth athlete in winter Olympic history to win three gold medals.
Italian Armin Zoeggeler, a bronze medalist in the 1994 Lillehammer Olympics, had the third fastest times in both runs for a combined total time of 3:18.939 to take the silver medal after a second-place finish after the first two races Sunday.
Germany's Jens Mueller won the bronze medal, 0.154 second behind Zoeggeler, followed by two-time Olympic runner-up Markus Prock of Austria.
Prock, who had the quickest starting times in all four races, faltered each time in the latter part of the course -- the first artificially iced track in Japan featuring two unique uphill sections -- to finish out of the medals.
Shigeaki Ushijima, the sole competitor for the host country, improved Japan's best showing in this event by finishing 16th, one place better than Kazuhiko Takamatsu at the 1992 Winter Games in Albertville, France.
''I bumped into the wall on the eighth curve and couldn't recover after that. The Olympics is very difficult,'' the 20-year-old Sapporo native said, in reference to having to race four times in the winter games as opposed to twice in World Cup events.
Sixteen-year-old Shiva Keshavan, India's lone athlete taking part in the Nagano Olympics, finished 28th out of the 32 competitors who completed all four races. (Kyodo News)
Final results of men's single luge Monday in the 18th Olympic Winter Games at Spiral, Nagano (course 1,326 meters, vertical drop 114 meters):
1. Georg Hackl, Germany 3 minutes, 18.436 seconds (first run 49.619, second run 49.573, third run 49.614, final run 49.630)
2. Armin Zoeggeler, Italy 3:18.939 (49.715, 49.690, 49.737, 49.797)
3. Jens Mueller, Germany 3:19.093 (49.954, 49.700, 49.729, 49.710)
4. Markus Prock, Austria 3:19.656 (49.861, 49.732, 49.863, 50.200)
5. Markus Kleinheinz, Austria 3:19.724 (50.016, 49.779, 49.918, 50.011)
6. Wendel Suckow, U.S. 3:19.728 (50.069, 49.871, 49.908, 49.880)
7. Gerhard Gleirscher, Austria 3:19.785 (50.161, 49.816, 49.911, 49.897)
8. Reinhold Rainer, Italy 3:19.946 (50.105, 50.008, 49.897, 49.936)
9. Adam Heidt, U.S. 3:20.098 (50.401, 49.899, 49.971, 49.827)
10. Norbert Huber, Italy 3:20.138 (50.100, 50.129, 50.026, 49.883)
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16. Shigeaki Ushijima, Japan 3:22.303 (50.747, 50.405, 50.716, 50.435)
28. Shiva Keshavan, India 3:28.385 (52.315, 52.127, 52.043, 51.900)
29. Lee Gi Ro, South Korea 3:34.721 (54.299, 52.875, 53.472, 54.075)
30. Hsieh Hsiang-Chun, Taiwan 3:34.769 (54.192, 53.093, 53.325, 54.159)
31. Kang Kwang Bae, South Korea 3:35.958 (53.492, 53.829, 53.685, 54.952)
32. Lee Yong, South Korea 3:40.407 (54.842, 54.838, 54.731, 55.996)
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Copyright 1998 The Shinano Mainichi Shimbun