Another Asian Luge gold for Shiva Keshavan

New Delhi: Seasoned Winter Olympian Shiva Keshavan braved an injury to clinch a gold medal at the Asian Luge Championship in Nagano, Japan, on Friday.

Keshavan dominated the event and finished the two heat race with a time of one minute, 39.962 seconds and top speed of 130.4 km/h. Japan’s Tanaka Shohei was second with a combined time of 1:44.874 seconds and top speed of 124.6 kmph. The bronze was claimed by Chinese Taipei’s Lien Te-An, who clocked 1:45.120 with a 126.3 kmph top speed.

It was a turnaround of sorts for Keshavan, who had a tumultuous lead up to the event at the Spiral Olympic Track. Earlier this week, after clocking the best time in training, Keshavan suffered a crash at over 130km/h in which he broke his sled, suffered tendon damage on his left foot and missed part of the official training.

Earlier this year, Shiva was forced to withdraw from the 2016 World Championships due to lack of funds. “I was determined to not let anything deter me from the gold medal this time, so despite all the obstacles I decided to risk everything in the race. I want to express my deepest gratitude to all my supporters and sponsors Mallcom Ltd., Hero Electronix, Hero Fincorp and Micromax, without whom I would not have been able to get back on track,” Shiva said.

Shiva is slated to take part in the 2017 World Championship at Innsbruck, Austria, and will compete in the World Cup circuit in the lead up to the qualification process for the 2018 Olympic Winter Games in Korea.