Tonga's first luger, Bruno Banani shows promise [1]
Thursday, December 10, 2009 - 18:30. Updated on Sunday, May 25, 2014 - 15:32.
Tonga's Bruno Banani (22) came in at 47th place out of 58 competitors in one of the lead-up competitions to the Luge World Cup, reported the Tonga Luge team from Igls, Austria recently.
The Tonga team though is reported to be very excited with Bruno's achievement and they are optimistic for a place for Tonga in the coming Winter Olympics.
Bruno is a computer science student from Tonga, was selected by promoters to train for Luge, looking for three characteristics a strong athlete, responsiveness and courage.
At his official debut at the Nations Cup a few weeks ago in Calgary he came in 41st of 44 starters. Then at the recent Nations Cup in Igls, Austria, Bruno finished 47th out of 58 starters - just 2.3 seconds behind the leader. Now the tobogganer from Tonga has a chance of qualifying for the Olympic Winter Games in Feruary 2010 in Vancouver. "Our goal was actually participating in the Olympics in four years. The fact that Bruno is already so good, so we never expected, " said his promoter, "we are proud of him."
Taniela Tufunga, the other Tongan athlete who is training for Luge did not qualify for the Luge World Cup and is not in contention to qualify for the Winter Olympic.