30th European Junior Championships in Lungiarue (ITA), Feb 6th to 8th, 2009

Gold Medals for Thomas Schopf (AUT), Evelin Lanthaler (ITA) and Kammerlander/Regensburger (AUT) After one day off due to the heavy snowfalls, the European Junior Championships have been held in one day and with only two runs for the single seater events. Austria´s rookie Thomas Schopf, who already drew attention with three World Cup podiums, is the new European Junior Champion. Local hero Hannes Clara had to settle for silver. Schopf was in the lead after the first run already and his tactics for the second run were quite simple: "I had some mistakes in my first run, so I thought without these mistakes the time would be fast enough to win the race and I tried not to repeat the mistakes." The result proved him right. Hannes Clara was ranked third after the first run and managed to improve his result to win the silver medal. "I am very happy about the result. In my first run I had a problem in the upper part, in the second run I had a mistake at the end, so I am very satisfied that eventually I finished second." Thomas Kammerlander took the bronze medal. After having won two consecutive European titles in 2005 and 2007, Melanie Batkowski (AUT) had been beaten in her last start as a junior. She expressed her respect for the new Champion Evelin Lanthaler: "She had two great runs, I would not have been able to match her times here. I already have two titles, she has deserved hers today." Evelin Lanthaler upset her competitors with two excellent run-times. "I really had a great race today", she said. She had not expected to win the race, even though had hoped for a medal: "I did not have much chance to practise here, but I knew that I was in pretty good shape. Now and then I achieved training times close to Renate Gietl." Gietl has won the first three World Cup races of the season and is one of the top medal contenders for next week´s World Championships in Moos/Passeier – which is exactly where Evelin Lanthaler comes from. With her newly won title she will definitely be good for a medal on her home track. The bronze medal took Alexandra Obrist (ITA). In the doubleseater´s event Thomas Kammerlander/Christoph Regensburger (AUT) could benefit from their World Cup experience and won the junior title. Their Austrian team-mates Rupert Brüggler/Tobias Angerer finished second. Poland´s Damian Fender/Dawid Jachnicki took the bronze medal and will try to follow their team-mates traces: with ten World Cup wins Andrzej Laszczak/Damian Waniczek are the currently most successful still active double in the World Cup. Please click here to view results.  All photos (c) Hermann Sobe

Evelin Lanthaler (ITA) Medalists women's singles Thomas Schopf (AUT) Medalists doubles