Shiva Keshawan ends his Olympic run, finishes 34th
A long career spanning over six Winter Olympic Games ended for 37-year-old Shiva Keshawan with a 34th finish in men singles Luge event in PyeongChang 2018 Winter Olympic Games here on Sunday.
Though Shiva gave his best in the third run, sliding at a speed of 127.8 km/hr but that was not enough to get him into the top 20 bracket for the fourth and final run.The gold medal went to Austrian David Gleirscher while Chris Mazozer of the US and Johannes Ludwig of Germany ended with silver and bronze medals.
Incidentally, the third and fourth runs were held amidst light snowing.
Shiva, who started his Olympic career in 1998 in Nagano, Japan, participated in all subsequent Winter Olympic Games at times with borrowed equipment. His best performance was in Turin where he finished 25th.
Though Shiva came here with a fond hope of ending his Olympic career with a medal, he found the competition too hard and too gruelling aggravated further by a cold blitzkrieg sweeping the host city.
Shiva, however, has some consolation that he could improve upon his performance in the 2014 Olympic Games at Sochi where he had finished 37th.
Shiva, who is born to Indian father and Italian mother, refused top accept Italian citizenship saying he wants to dedicate himself with the promotion of winter sports in general and his favourite Luge in particular in India.
Only other Indian competitor Jagdish Singh in Cross Country Skiing has his event scheduled this week.
