Zoeggeler zooms to opening win

CALGARY, Alberta (AP) -- Armin Zoeggeler of Italy won the opening World Cup race of the season and Tatjana Huefner led a German sweep of the top four spots in the women's race on Saturday.

Zoeggler edged German slider David Moeller by five one-hundredths of a second over two runs at Canada Olympic Park.

Russia's Albert Demtschenko was third, a tenth of a second behind Zoeggler's combined time of 1:30.068.

"I'm very happy for the first win of the season," said Zoeggler, the 35-year-old multiple Olympic medal winner and world champion.

"In the second run I pushed more at the start and it was a good run at the labyrinth (near the bottom of the run)."

Zoeggeler hit 128.1 kph on the first run, the fastest of the night.

On the womens' side, Germany's powerhouse team dominated.

Huefner, the bronze medalist at the 2006 Torino Olympics, recorded a two-run time of 1:33.691 to take the gold in a new track start record of 4.913 seconds.

Huefner edged teammate Natalie Geisenberger by 16 one-hundredths of a second. Anke Wischnewski was third, a third of a second back, and Corinna Martini was fourth, eight-tenths of a second off the pace.

"We love to make it so dominant here," said Huefner, who had six World Cup victories last season. "We all love Calgary's track and we are very good here."

American Erin Hamlin, the winner of the world championships last February in Lake Placid, New York, was seventh.

The next race is next weekend at Igls, Austria.