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<p>On Friday, Jayson Terdiman and Chris Mazdzer took fifth. On Saturday it was 11th. For Sunday, the duo has its sights on the podium at the World Championships.</p><p>After an injury scare to his teammate a week ago, Terdiman is thrilled to have the opportunity.</p><p>The Berwick native will again race with Mazdzer as well as fellow medalist Emily Sweeney for the United States in the luge team relay event in Winterberg, Germany.</p><p>Terdiman and Mazdzer will be together in the doubles portion of the relay. Sweeney will be the women&#8217;s singles entrant on the team and will be joined by the men&#8217;s slider with the fastest heat on Sunday.</p><p>For a time, it looked like it might not happen.</p><p>Mazdzer hurt his neck in a training run last week and he missed the next several days of sliding while figuring out what to do next.</p><p>&#8220;What makes this tough is the fact that all year I have really been looking forward to World Championships and training to peak for this competition,&#8221; Mazdzer said before the weekend.</p><p>But compete he did. He and Terdiman surprisingly took fifth place in Friday&#8217;s sprint doubles race &#8212; narrowly missing a medal &#8212; before finishing 11th in Saturday&#8217;s full-length doubles competition.</p><p>&#8220;Six days ago, Madzder and I thought the season might be over,&#8221; Terdiman wrote on Instagram. &#8220;(Friday), with minimal training, we absolutely killed it and landed a fifth (yeah you read that right&#8230; 5th) place finish in the Sprint World Championships! What makes this so crazy is that we have only been back on the sled together for (less than) four months!</p><p>&#8220;I can&#8217;t wait to see what the future holds, but right now our focus is putting Team USA back on the podium in the Team Relay tomorrow!&#8221;</p><p>If Mazdzer and Terdiman were unable to compete, the U.S. wouldn&#8217;t have an entry in the team relay since there is no other doubles option to fill the roster.</p><p>But with a shot to win a medal &#8212; Sweeney won bronze in the women&#8217;s singles on Saturday &#8212; Mazdzer decided to tough it out.</p><p>The U.S. has medaled in two of the four team relays on the World Cup circuit this winter, taking silver in one and bronze in another. Terdiman and Mazdzer were on both of those medal-winning squads along with Summer Britcher and Tucker West in Calgary in December and K&#246;nigssee, Germany, at the start of the month.</p><p>Germany will be the overwhelming favorite in the team event and has been dominant the entire weekend, led by Natalie Geisenberger, who won her fourth women&#8217;s luge gold medal on Saturday.</p><p>But the Americans won a silver in the team relay at the last World Championships in 2017 and narrowly missed medaling in the relay at last year&#8217;s Pyeongchang Olympics.</p><p>&#8220;It&#8217;s been hard sitting on the sidelines, but it has been the correct decision,&#8221; Mazdzer said. &#8220;I&#8217;m optimistic that I will help Team USA in the relay.&#8221;</p><p>Mazdzer and Terdiman have won a doubles silver medal this season for the U.S., and the American hopes in the relay may come down to them finding speed.</p><p>Sweeney should help the cause as well.</p><p>Her bronze medal on Saturday came less than a year after she fractured her neck and spine in a horrifying crash at the Pyeongchang Olympics.</p><p>When she came back off the injury, she decided to start really aiming at her sport&#8217;s biggest prizes &#8212; medals at the Olympics, and medals at the world championships. She announced that she&#8217;s recovered with a World Cup medal earlier this season, and Saturday was another breakthrough.</p><p>&#8220;To actually have one is crazy,&#8221; Sweeney said. &#8220;I&#8217;m quite happy with that.&#8221;</p><p>Sweeney became the 13th USA Luge athlete to win a medal at worlds. The doubles team of Mark Grimmette and Brian Martin combined to win nine, Erin Hamlin won four, Tony Benshoof claimed three, Ashley Walden won two as did the doubles team of Chris Thorpe and Gordy Sheer &#8212; while Becky Wilczak, Wendel Suckow, Tucker West and the doubles sled of Terdiman and retired former teammate Matt Mortensen.</p><p>Now, so does Sweeney.</p><p>&#8220;Time makes things better,&#8221; she said. &#8220;Time and a lot of work.&#8221;</p><p>Sweeney said the Americans will be ready for another medal shot on Sunday.</p><p>&#8220;So 10, 11 months ago, I was pretty miserable,&#8221; Sweeney said. &#8220;Not going to lie. The difference from then to now, yes, it does seem unreal.&#8221;</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">Berwick&#8217;s Jayson Terdiman (far right) has already picked up two medals in the team relay on the World Cup circuit this season with doubles teammate Chris Mazdzer (far left). On Sunday, they compete in the event again, this time at the World Championships in Germany. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/web1_AP19006505884323.jpg</photo0><caption0>Berwick&#8217;s Jayson Terdiman (far right) has already picked up two medals in the team relay on the World Cup circuit this season with doubles teammate Chris Mazdzer (far left). On Sunday, they compete in the event again, this time at the World Championships in Germany. </caption0><photoCredit0>Tobias Hase | AP file photo </photoCredit0></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>Staff and wire reports</p></bylineMeta></div>

Berwick’s Terdiman gunning for medal in luge team relay at World Championships