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India’s Shiva Keshavan had a less-than-sterling start to his Olympic campaign, as he finished 35th out of 39 participants in the first run of the luge event at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi.
The 32-year-old recorded a time of 53.905 seconds, which was 1.735 seconds slower than the leader Albert Demchenko of Russia, who put in a time of 52.17 seconds.
Keshavan started off well as he was off just by 0.224 seconds at the end of the first interval, but he fell off the pace as he progressed. He hit a top speed of 130.1 kph, while leader Demchenko’s top speed was 139.1 kph.
The Indian was the talk of the town on Saturday, as the commentators and fans continued to marvel at his miraculous recovery during the practice run two days ago. Keshavan’s performance today wasn’t quite as spectacular though, as he finished among the backmarkers and will have an uphill task to get anywhere near the top 10 in the upcoming runs the next couple of days.
Still, considering the obstacles that Keshavan has had to fight through to get here, which include arranging for his own funds for purchasing equipment and being denied the chance to officially represent India at the Games, this was still a respectable showing by him.
The second run of the luge event will be held tomorrow.
