Three young local lugers got a taste of the FIL World Championships at Winterberg, Germany from Jan. 25 to 27.
Reid Watts, Trinity Ellis and Veronica Ravenna all took part in the full World Championship events and also had their results included in the U23 World Championships listing.
Watts was the lone Canadian in the men's event, taking an 18th-place finish. Germany's Felix Loch knocked off Austria's Reinhard Egger and Russia's Semen Pavlichenko for the crown. Watts' time also stood as the fourth-best among the U23 crowd. Russia's Roman Repilov took home the title.
Watts also qualified for his first sprint (single-run) final in which he placed 13th.
Pemberton's Ellis, meanwhile, was promoted from the junior circuit for the event, though she didn't qualify for a second run with a 29th-place showing. Her time stood as ninth-best among the U23 team.
Ravenna, representing Argentina, was 24th in the women's race and sixth among U23s. Germany's Julia Taubitz was the top junior.
Kim McRae provided Canada with its only other result, a 14th-place finish as Germany's Natalia Geisenberger nicked Taubitz and Emily Sweeney of the United States for the overall title.
In the men's doubles race, Canada's Tristan Walker and Justin Snith were disqualified for an overweight sled. Germany's Toni Eggert and Sascha Benecken topped countrymen Tobias Wendl and Tobias Arlt and Austria's Thomas Steu and Lorenz Koller for the title.
Canadians fared better in the team event, however, with McRae, Watts and the Walker-Snith sled posting a fifth-place finish, with the latter two posting the top reaction times of the day. Russia bested Austria and Germany for gold.
Full results are available online at www.fil-luge.org.
