luge competition with another fine run yesterday in Lillehammer, Norway, the site of the Winter Olympics.

The Island's lone winter Olympian clocked 52.543 seconds in his first attempt yesterday (his third overall in the four race series) to better a 52.606 recorded the day previous.

His final run was also creditable (52.633) to enable the local to finish 30th out of 33 competitors with an aggregate time of 3:30.637.

Despite hailing from a country having never experienced snowfall, Payne improved steadily throughout the build-up toward the Games and capped his efforts off with a solid showing.

He is also believed to have been lined up to appear on the CBS This Morning programme today (Ch. 3/9, 8 a.m.).

Meanwhile, Germany's George Hackl showed remarkable nerve under pressure to defend his men's luge title and clinch a special place in Olympic history.

The 27-year-old Bavarian soldier became the first man to win two gold medals in the men's individual event after a dramatic fight with Austrian Markus Prock in one of the tightest finishes of an Olympics. He won by just 13 thousandths of a second.

Hackl clocked an aggregate of three minutes 21.571 seconds over the four runs on Sunday and yesterday.

Prock, the silver medallist at the 1992 Albertville Games, had to be satisfied with second place again with an aggregate 3:21.584. Italian Armin Zoeggeler took the bronze medal with 3:21.833, 0.262 of a second behind Hackl.

With two gold medals and a silver to his name, Hackl became the most successful individual luge racer in Olympic history.

Former East German Thomas Koehler also achieved the feat at the 1964 and 1968 Games but one of his gold medals in 1968 was in the two-seater event.

Prock made the stocky Bavarian work all the way for his place in the record books.

Hackl led by Prock by one hundredth of a second overnight after Sunday's first two runs. But the Austrian clocked a track record 50.166 seconds in the third run to move into the lead by 48 thousandths of a second before the fourth run.

But Hackl, the silver medalist at the 1988 Calgary Games, kept his nerve. He was second fastest in the final run with 50.491 seconds behind Zoeggeler's 50.426. Prock could only manage seventh fastest with 50.552 to blow his chances of gold.

Hackl, who has struggled to stamp his usual authority on luge racing this season, said he was lucky to win.

"Markus deserves the gold medal as much as me. It was just a matter of luck.

But that is the way it is in life sometimes,'' he said. "I just tried to slide a secure fourth run and would have been just as happy with silver.''