February 18, 2010
Brothers Andris and Juris Šics have won Latvia’s first medal in the 2010 Winter Olympics, earning silver in the men’s double luge event Feb. 17.
They recorded a total time of 1 minute, 22.969 seconds over two runs, just a bit more than a quarter of second slower than gold medalists Andreas and Wolfgang Linger of Austria, who finished with 1:22.705. The Lingers also are brothers.
The bronze medal went to Patric Leitner and Alexander Resch of Germany, according to results posted on the official Web site of the Winter Olympics, www.vancouver2010.com.
The Latvians ranked second after their first run in the event, which took place at the Whistler Sliding Centre in Canada’s province of British Columbia. Their time of 41.420 was .088 slower than that of the Austrians, who recorded a track record of 41.332.
The brothers Šics finished third in the second run with a time of 41.549, but held on to second place overall.
The 24-year-old Andris and the 26-year-old Juris are trained by Jānis Liepa. The Šics team finished seventh in the event during the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin.
The Latvian double luge team of Oskars Gudramovičs and Pēteris Kalniņš was in 12th place after the first run. Gudramovičs and Kalnīņš finished 13th in the second run, but held on to 12th place overall.
A total of 20 teams competed in the event.
Andris Straumanis is editor of Latvians Online.
