FIL PEWO World Cup - Unterammergau, Wrap Up

Press Information Sunday, January 25th, 2009
PEWO World Cup/January 23rd – 25th, Unterammergau (GER)


Third win for Gietl (ITA), Pigneter claims his first season win

Finally back on his reserved spot at top of the podium was Italy´s Patrick Pigneter: “I knew that I was in top form, I tuned a little bit of my equipment and apparently I did the right thing,” he said. He will have good memories of the little Bavarian town of Unterammergau after having won in both the mens singles and the doubles events.

More than happy was the reigning World Champion from Austria, Gernot Schwab, who placed second. At the start of the event even he had low expectations: “All my money I would have betted against me. In the training runs I crashed into the boards twice and I was 16th. But leading after the first run really made up for everything. I don´t mind that Patrick won and I finished second, I am happy.” Schwab works full time as a teacher. “I do not have any tracks close to home where I could test sleds. So I come to the World Cups and start testing here. I used different equipment in each run. This can be frustrating sometimes, but results like today make up for it.”

The young Austrian Thomas Schopf (19) finished third once again. In St. Sebastian earlier this season he had scored his first world cup podium.

„The basis for my win was the first run. I did not take any chances in the second run”, said Renate Gietl (ITA) who won her third consecutive race.

“I had a lot of respect here, this is a track where you have to be able to be aggressive, to control speed as well as race very smoothly. I am happy that I managed to combine all these requirements.”

The fastest time in the second run was achieved by Melanie Batkowski (AUT) who scored her best season result. Ekatharina Lavrentjeva (RUS) was weakened by a flu needed a good second run to push her team mate Julia Vetlova off the podium and finish third.


Final Results:

Women (14):

1. Renate GIETL (ITA), 1:08,31(1), 1:08,85(2), 2:17,16
2. Melanie BATKOWSKI (AUT), 1:08,73(2), 1:08,80(1), 2:17,53
3. Ekatharina LAVRENTJEVA (RUS), 1:09,27(4), 1:09,14(3), 2:18,41
4. Renate KASSLATTER (ITA), 1:09,77(6), 1:09,30(4), 2:19,07

5. Evelyn LANTHALER (ITA), 1:09,73(5), 1:09,38(5), 2:19,11
6. Julia VETLOVA (RUS), 1:09,23(3), 1:10,02(6), 2:19,25
7. Marlies WAGNER (AUT), 2:21,19
8. Tina UNTERBERGER (AUT), 2:21,98
9. Tamara SCHWARZ (ITA), 2:24,33
10. Michaela MAURER (GER), 2:2:25,21


Men (36):

1. Patrick PIGNETER (ITA), 1:07,43(2), 1:07,43(1), 2:14,86
2. Gernot SCHWAB (AUT), 1:07,42(1), 1:07,65(2), 2:15,07
3. Thomas SCHOPF (AUT), 1:07,61(4), 1:07,88(4), 2:15,49
4. Robert BATKOWSKI (AUT), 1:07,70(5), 1:07,85(3), 2:15,55
4. Florian BREITENBERGER (ITA), 1: 07,53(3), 1:08,02(5), 2:15,55
6. Anton BLASBICHLER (ITA), 1:07,75(6), 1:08,03(6), 2:15,78
7. Michael SCHEIKL (AUT), 1:07,78(7), 1:08,51(10), 2:16,29
8. Stefan GRUBER (ITA), 1:08,02(8), 1:08,31(8), 2:16,33
9. Hannes CLARA (ITA), 2:16,45
10. Florian BATKOWSKI (AUT), 2:16,62
11. Rudi RESCH (ITA), 2:16,84
12. Gerald KAMMERLANDER (AUT), 2:17,35
13. Kaj JOHNSON (CAN), 1:09,43(14), 1:09,06(14), 2:18,49
19. Greg JONES (CAN), 1:10,50(20), 1:10,79(19), 2:21,29
21. John GIBSON (CAN), 1:10,80(21), 1:11,22(21), 2:22,02

All Photos Credit of FIL/Sobe