23rd FIL European Championships Natural Track Luge - Day 3

23^rd FIL European Championships

Natural Track Luge 2010

 

 

Press Information

Sunday, January 17^th, 2010

 

 

European Championships, January 14^th-17^th, 2010

in St.Sebastian/Mariazell (AUT)

 

 

Lavrentjeva (RUS) defends title – Pigneter (ITA) new Champion

 

The usual three medal contenders suddenly had to face a new situation with a fourth lady claiming a medal. In today's race the Austrian Melanie Batkowski was the unlucky one who missed the podium.

 

Old and new European Champion is Russia's Ekatharina Lavrentjeva, who after 2004 and 2008 could win her third title. "It was very difficult to win here, because I do not know the track very well. I did not have a lot of training opportunities here", said Lavrentjeva. She was the most consistent athlete, second in each run without ever being the fastest, was enough to finish on top of the podium.

 

The new face on the podium was the Italian junior Evelin Lanthaler who became faster from run to run. In the end the eventual silver medallist was only eight hundredths away from winning the title: "I already had a good feeling during the training runs, I liked especially the bottom part of the track. But I never would have dared to dream to win the silver medal here", said Lanthaler who managed to keep her cool in spite of the pressure she had before the last run: "The second run was ok, but before the final run I was really extremely nervous, but some tension is ok and part of the fun." Her pre-start ritual help her to keep focussed: "I mentally run through the track and I never start before 10 in the 20-second start window which we have."

 

Having an additional medal contender changed also Renate Gietl's perspective who has won her third consecutive European medal: "Of course I am happy about my medal, it was really tight and we saw how easily you can miss the podium. I came here to win. But I realized that I started doing the same mistakes repeatedly, there were some turns which I never managed to take perfectly, I knew it would be very difficult to win.", said the reigning World Champion.

 

Racing with competence and confidence Patrick Pigneter won the last title he was missing in his collection. He has won all possible individual titles now (only team gold went to Austria). "I want to say thank you to my trainer, to my sponsors and to all of my fans who came a long way for today's race".  With the fastest times in each run, Pigneter finished exactly one second ahead of his competitors: "I was very confident about winning here, but you have to stay 100% focussed until you have passed the finish line. Last year taught me that there is always something that can happen", said Pigneter who had crashed in the final turn in St. Sebastian last year.

 

"Today Patrick was invincible" runner up Thomas Kammerlander described his Italian competitor. In the eternal duel between Italy and Austria it was Thomas Kammerlander who had the last chance to win a medal for Austria. His brother Gerald, Thomas Schopf and Michael Scheikl – ranked fifth, sixth and seventh after two runs, had already missed their chances. Thomas Kammerlander knew that all eyes and hopes were on him when he started into his final run: "The pressure was huge, but thank God I am really cold blooded. I have had a great World Cup season so far, the European Championships could not have started better with winning the team gold medal, so I had really nothing to loose and remained really cool", said the young Tyrolian who improved from the third to the second rank with his last run and passed Anton Blasbichler.

 

Blasbichler was happy with his bronze medal and once again showed his younger colleagues that he is still one to beat for a medal. He won his first European medal – a golden one – 17 years ago in Stein/Enns (AUT), followed by another gold medal 1999 in Szczyrk (POL) and a silver medal in 2008 in Olang. With four European medals he is not yet the leader in the eternal statistics, as his Italian fellow countryman Damiano Lugon has won five medals.  No other athlete ever managed to medal in European Championships over a period of 17 years. "Why should I retire if I can still beat the youngsters", he said. "I have had the luck on my side today, earlier this winter I have had some narrow decisions and became fourth or fifth, today I was the lucky one. There were difficult track conditions today and I think everybody has had his problems. You always need a little bit of luck, a good performance alone is not enough". Rookie Alex Gruber will agree, he finished three hundredths behind Blasbichler and became fourth.

 

 

 

Final Results Women (17):

 

1. Ekatharina LAVRENTJEVA (RUS), 1:12,86(2), 1:13.19(2), 1:12,71(2), 3:38,76

2. Evelin LANTHALER (ITA), 1:13,53(4), 1:12,91(1), 1:12,40(1), 3:38,84

3. Renate GIETL (ITA), 1:12,75(1), 1:13,60(4), 1:12,73(3), 3:39,08

4. Melanie BATKOWSKI (AUT), 1:13,05(3), 1:13,45(3), 1:12,83(4), 3:39,33

5. Alexandra OBRIST (ITA), 1:13,74(5), 1:15,22(5), 1:14,24(5), 3:43,20

6. Melanie SCHWARZ (ITA), 1:14,46(7), 1:15,45(6), 1:14,68(7), 3:44,59

7. Marlies WAGNER (AUT), 3:44,62

8. Nina BUCINEL (SLO), 3:47,77

 

Final Results Men (45):

 

1. Patrick PIGNETER (ITA), 1:10,58(1), 1.10,58(1), 1:11,08(1), 3:32,24

2. Thomas KAMMERLANDER (AUT), 1:11,10(3), 1:10,98(3), 1:11,16(2), 3:33,24

3. Anton BLASBICHLER (ITA), 1:10,96(2),, 1:11,07(4), 1:11,90(8), 3:33,93

4. Alex GRUBER (ITA), 1:11,43(6), 1:10,85(2), 1:11,68(3), 3:33,96

5. Gerald KAMMERLANDER (AUT), 1:11,26(4), 1:11,11(5), 1:11,75(5), 3:34,12

6. Hannes CLARA (ITA), 1:11,62(7), 1:11,98(11), 1:11,98(11), 1:11,68(3), 3:35,28

7. Thomas SCHOPF (AUT), 1:11,27(5), 1:11,90(10), 1:12,12(11), 3:35,29

8. Robert BATKOWSKI (AUT), 1:12,17(10), 1:11,44(8), 1:11,80(6), 3:35,41

9. Michael SCHEIKL (AUT), 1:12,14(9), 1:11,36(7), 1:12,08(10), 3:35,58

10. Stefan GRUBER (ITA), 1:11,76(8), 1:12,00(12), 1:11,86(7), 3:35,62

14. Kaj JOHNSON (CAN), 3:39,00

 

 

 

Chris Karl

FIL Media Service

 

Complete results – click on the link and select the run you want to view:

 

http://www.fil-luge.org/filext/result_detail_select.asp?lan=en&currSeason=2009%2F2010&art=NB&cup_type=MS+&event_id_fk=504

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