Lake Placid, USA: The Luge World Cup Circuit kicked off today with a promising show from India as Shiva Keshavan put down a personal best time of 53.125 seconds and finished the Nations Cup race with a best ever showing of 15th Place. The Luge pilot from Manali and fastest man in Asia clocked 120.01 km/h on his way down the 1.5 km ice course. The gold went to Russia’s Victor Kneyb, who put down a record time of 51.675 seconds with a speed of 123.73 km/h.

This is a significant result for Shiva as this marks his first ever qualification for the World Cup Finals Event, which will be held tomorrow.

The race took place in tough weather conditions with the tempetatures dropping to -13 degrees Celcius making the ice extremely hard and three top athletes crashing out as they failed to find their grip on the ice.

Shiva was satisfied with his performance and had this to say at the end of his run. “Me and my coach Duncan are thrilled with the result. We have been working on some key driving points and aiming for stability and consistency, which paid off under these tough conditions. The aim is to take it one step at a time and continue to improve while slowly unlocking more speed from our sled during the year without compromising on control or safety. I am excited about the World Cup final tomorrow as it is our first time competing at this level. Thanks to my team and all the support back home.”