FIL Aquotec Natural Track Luge World Cup - Day 3

Press Information
Saturday, December 19th, 2009
17th-20th December 2009
Novouralsk/Yekaterinburg (RUS) II

Thomas Schopf and Melanie Batkowski win for Austria

With a spectacular second run rookie Thomas Schopf (AUT) shot himself from the third intermediate rank to the second win within 24 hours. "Before I went into the second run, I told myself: Thomas, give it all, you can do it! I knew that I could do better than in the first run, as I have had some mistakes here and there, but on this track nobody made it all the way down without mistakes." Runner up – again – was Patrick Pigneter (ITA) who is actually happy about the new challenger: "Recently I have had some motivational problems. I have won the overall World Cup four consecutive times and I was somehow missing the last bit of motivation to push myself. Now there is a new challenge and I am looking forward to the season." Lucky third was Thomas Kammerlander (AUT), who achieved his second podium finish in his career. Gernot Schwab (AUT) as Anton Blasbichler (ITA) had been ranked before him after the first run, but had problems in their second runs. "I am happy about the result", said Kammerlander, "last year I did not even finish within the top ten. This is a really difficult track here."
With "two fairly good runs" Melanie Batkowski upset her competitors and fulfilled yesterday's prophecy that she would do a little bit better today than yesterday. "Both runs were not perfect, but I just focussed on myself and saw to hit the braking points at the best moment." Her challengers had to submit to bigger mistakes, Ekatharina Lavrentjeva (RUS) had lost the race in the first run already: "I almost crashed in the first run, so I knew that I could not win any more. My goal was to move from the third place to the second and I am happy that I succeeded." Less happy was Renate Gietl (ITA) with her fifth consecutive third place: "I wanted to move up one rank, but I failed. Melanie and Katharina were too strong today."
Tomorrow, Sunday, the double seater´s event will be held. After that the aqotec World Cup will be continued in Umhausen (AUT) Jan 8-10 with the 100th World Cup race in the World Cup history.
Final Results Women (11):
1. Melanie BATKOWSKI (AUT), 1:02,34(1), 1:02,35(1), 2:04,69
2. Ekatharina LAVRENTJEVA (RUS), 1:03,16(3), 1:02,39(2), 2:05,55
3. Renate GIETL (ITA), 1:03,02(2), 1:03,16(3), 2:06,18
4. Evelyn LANTHALER (ITA), 1:03,83(5), 1:03,41(4), 2:07,24
5. Marlies WAGNER (AUT), 1:03,29(4), 1:04,01(5), 2:07,30
6. Olga SIDOROVA (RUS), 1:04,16(6), 1:04,29(6), 2:08,45
7. Ludmilla ASTRAMOVISH (RUS), 2:08,81
8. Svetlana ZHARAVINA (RUS), 2:10,36
9. Veronika NACHMANN (GER), 2:11,14
10. Nina BUCINEL (SLO), 2:11,25
11. Tina UNTERBERGER (AUT), 2:16,09
Final Results Men (31):
1. Thomas SCHOPF (AUT), 1:00,81(3), 1:00,60(1), 2:01,41
2. Patrick PIGNETER (ITA), 1:00,76(1), 1:00,98(2), 2:01,74
3. Thomas KAMMERLANDER (AUT), 1:01,12(5), 1:01,12(3), 2:02,24
4. Gernot SCHWAB (AUT), 1:00,88(4), 1:01,46(4), 2:02,34
5. Anton BLASBICHLER (ITA), 1:00,80(2), 1:01,56(5), 2:02,36
6. Stefan GRUBER (ITA), 1:01,44(6), 1:01,97(8), 2:03,41
7. Rudi RESCH (ITA), 1:01,81(10), 1:01,78(6), 2:03,59
8. Gerald KAMMERLANDER (AUT), 1:01,66(7), 1:02,16(9), 2:03,82
9. Michael SCHEIKL (AUT), 1:01,72(9), 1:02,21(10), 2:03,93
10. Kaj JOHNSON (CAN), 1:02,19(12), 1:01,80(7), 2:03,99
World Cup Standings (2/6):
Women:
1. Ekatharina LAVRENTJEVA (RUS) 185 points
1. Melanie BATKOWSKI (AUT) 185
3. Renate GIETL (ITA) 140
4. Marlies WAGNER (AUT) 115
4. Evelyn LANTHALER (ITA) 115
6. Olga SIDOROVA (RUS) 96
7. Nina BUCINEL (SLO) 78
7. Veronika NACHMANN (GER) 78
9. Tina UNTERBERGER (AUT) 68
10. Regina GILVANOVA (RUS) 50
Men:
1. Thomas SCHOPF (AUT) 200 points
2. Patrick PIGNETER (ITA) 170
3. Gernot SCHWAB (AUT) 130
4. Thomas KAMMERLANDER (AUT) 125
5. Anton BLASBICHLER (ITA) 115
6. Stefan GRUBER (ITA) 100
7. Rudi RESCH (ITA) 88
8. Michael SCHEIKL (AUT) 78
9. Gerald KAMMERLANDER (AUT) 76
10. Ziga PAGON (SLO) 74
11. Kaj JOHNSON (CAN) 72
12. Florian CLARA (ITA) 64
13. Jury TALYKH (RUS) 57
14. Damian WANICZEK (POL) 55

Chris Karl

FIL Media Service