Contact: Amanda Bird, USBSF Marketing & Communications Manager
(518) 354-2250, abird@usbsf.com
Igls hosts Junior World Championships this week
IGLS, Austria (Jan. 24, 2012)–While the World Cup tour takes a week break to transition from Europe to North America, international competition continues with the Junior World Championships in Igls, Austria from Jan. 26-29.
Junior World Championships begins at 9 am local time on Thursday with the women’s and men’s skeleton races. The men’s two-man bobsled competition takes place at 9 am on Saturday, while four-man racing will occur at 9 am on Sunday. Athletes must be no older than 23 for skeleton, or 26 for bobsled, in order to be eligible to compete.
The U.S. will enter Sherri Emery (New Gloucester, Maine) and Meghan Sullivan (Bluemont, Va.) in the women’s skeleton race and Ryan Sweeney (Whitehall, N.Y.) and Austin McCrary (Colleyville, Texas) in the men’s competition.
Bobsledders Codie Bascue (Whitehall, N.Y.) and Jake Peterson (Princeton, Minn.) competed in the same sled in the Youth Olympic Games in Igls last weekend, but the friends will become rivals on Saturday when they both pilot sleds. Rookie brakemen Dakarai Kongela (Suquamish, Wash.) and Nic Taylor (Hayward, Calif.) will join Bascue and Peterson in the battle for gold.
The World Cup tour will resume next week on the 2010 Olympic track in Whistler, Canada, while the Intercontinental Cup tour will pick back up in Park City, Utah.
For media inquiries, please contact Amanda Bird, USBSF Marketing & Communications Manager, at abird@usbsf.com, or at (518) 354-2250.
About the U.S. Bobsled and Skeleton Federation
The United States Bobsled and Skeleton Federation, based in Lake Placid, N.Y., is the national governing body for the sports of bobsled and skeleton in the United States. The USBSF would like to thank its sponsors, suppliers and contributors for their support: BMW of North America, Under Armour, United States National Guard, Kampgrounds of America, National Strength and Conditioning Association, Vivat!, Global Forwarding, KBC Helmets, Susan G. Komen for the Cure, EDAS/Ripxx, UberSense, Tesa Tape and Ferris Mfg. Corp. For more information, please visit the USBSF website at http://bobsled.teamusa.org.
###