CALGARY - Italian luge legend Armin Zoeggeler won the season's inaugural World Cup race Saturday, but Calgary's Sam Edney made a statement by finishing a career-best fifth.

Zoeggler edged German slider David Moeller by five one-hundredths of a second over two runs to win gold in the men's singles event 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 km/h on the first run, the fastest of the night.

Edney, 25, was fourth after the first run, just four-hundredths of a second off the lead, but fell back in his final heat.

"I had a problem getting my one hand in (the sled) at the start, which kind of throws the top curves off and that's a lot of speed and time (lost), but overall I'm really pleased with it,'' he said.

"In the World Cup my previous best was 12th. This kind of blows that out of the water. It feels great.''

The finish was a big boost for Edney. He was 19th at the 2006 Turin Olympics and had struggled since to crack the top-20 in World Cup rankings.

Fifth place also gives a lift to Canada's luge program, which has won just four World Cup medals in its history, one World Championship gold, and no Olympic hardware.

"I see now we're in the league where we want to be and (the strong finishes) are not just a fluke anymore,'' said Canadian coach Wolfgang Staudinger.

Staudinger, recruited from the German team two years ago, has overhauled Canada's luge program, emphasizing more dryland training to improve start times and having the sleds custom-built in-house.

Jeff Christie of Vancouver was ninth while Brendan Hauptman of Kimberley, B.C. was 22nd in the 32-sled field.

"I always say you've got to have two good starts and two good runs and that's what I had today,'' said Christie, 26.

"I could still be a little faster at the start, but I'm pretty happy with a top-10 in the first race.''

On the womens' side, Germany's powerhouse team destroyed all comers by sweeping the top four spots.

Tatjana Huefner, the bronze medal winner at the 2006 Olympic Games in Turin, recorded a two-run time of 1:33.691 to take the gold medal.

The 26-year-old from Neuruppin, near Berlin, led after the first run and didn't look back. She also set a new track start record of 4.913 seconds, formerly held by Canada's Meaghan Simister.

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.

Alex Gough of Calgary was the top Canadian at sixth.

The 22-year-old from Calgary hit the wall in the first run and skidded on the final curves of the course on the second stint to push herself down the standings.

"There were a few mistakes here and there. I would have liked to have had clean runs, but I'm happy with sixth place,'' said Gough.

Gough is considered Canada's best hope for an Olympic medal. She was fourth in the World Championships in Lake Placid, N.Y., in February and eighth overall on last season's World Cup circuit.

Veteran slider Regan Lauscher of Red Deer, Alta., was 10th, Simister of Regina was 17th, and Calgary's Denae Delcourt was 23rd in the 24-sled field.

The next race is Nov. 28-29 at Igls, Austria.