FIL Aquotec World Cup Natural Track Luge - Latsch - Day 1

 

FIL aqotec WORLD CUP

NATURAL TRACK LUGE

 

Press Information

Saturday, January 23^rd, 2010

 

22^nd – 24^th January 2010

Latsch/Laces (ITA)

 

Pigneter/Clara (ITA) still winning

 

"Congratulations to Patrick Pigneter and Florian Clara, they are unbeatable these days, but we will keep trying", said runner up Christian Schopf (AUT) after the race. Pigneter/Clara (ITA) achieved in spite of the "choice of the wrong runners in the first run" – so Pigneter – the fastest times in both runs and in the final ranking were more than one second ahead of Schopf/Schopf (AUT). "We changed the runners after the first run, now everything is perfect again" said Pigneter. The new runners were in fact the old ones: "We repaired the broken ones from Russia and they worked well in the second run."

Equipment issues also kept the Schopf brothers awake last night: "We could tell in the training runs that there was something wrong and the sled just did not feel right. So we redid all the adjustments and worked until half past midnight." The trouble was rewarded as they could celebrate their second silver medal in their world cup career: "We are really happy about today's result, especially after having been fourth four times in a row now", said Andreas Schopf. "We always knew that we are not far away, but we made stupid mistakes, there was always something wrong. Today we had the luck on our side, we were still not at our best, too nervous, not really precise, but we have potential for improvement and we will try hard."

More problems with themselves and less with the equipment had the former European Champions Pavel Porshnev/Ivan Lazarev (RUS): "Pavel is still sick, better than last week, but far from well. Our first run was bad, way too many mistakes, but the second run was ok", said Ivan Lazarev.

 

In the women's event the first run was held today, Saturday, and it was not without surprises: serial winner Ekatharina Lavrentjeva (RUS) is ranked fourth, lead by Renate Gietl (ITA), Melanie Batkowski (AUT) and the new silver medallist in the European Championships, Evelin Lanthaler (ITA). The Germans Michaela Maurer and Veronika Nachmann are ranked sixth and ninth which - which a respective second run tomorrow, Sunday, might lead to their best career results.

 

 

Final Results Doubles (12):

 

1. Patrick PIGNETER/Florian CLARA (ITA), 1:08,17(1), 1:07,25(1), 2:15,42

2. Christian SCHOPF/Andreas SCHOPF (AUT), 1:08,28(2), 1:08,39(3), 2:16,67

3.  Pavel PORSHNEV/Ivan LAZAREV (RUS), 1:08,62(3), 1:08,10(2), 2:16,72

4. Andrzej LASZCZAK/Damian WANICZEK (POL), 1:08,73(5), 1:08,46(4), 2:17,19

5. Christian SCHATZ/Gerhard MÜHLBACHER (AUT), 1:08,66(4), 1:08,95(6), 2:17,61

6. Florian BREITENBERGER/David MAIR (ITA), 1:09,46(6), 1:08,78(5), 2:18,24

7. Thomas KAMMERLANDER/Christoph REGENSBURGER (AUT), 1:09,79(7), 1:09,83(8), 2:19,62

8. Björn KIERSPEL/Christian WICHAN (GER), 1:10,28(8), 1:09,52(7), 2:19,80

 

 

Intermediate Ranking after one run women (20):

 

1. Renate GIETL (ITA), 1:03,82(1),

2. Melanie BATKOWSKI (AUT), 1:04,44(2),

3. Evelin LANTHALER (ITA), 1:04,51(3),

4. Ekatharina LAVRENTJEVA (RUS), 1:04,60(4),

5. Alexandra OBRIST (ITA), 1:05,67(5),

6. Michaela MAURER (GER), 1:05,82(6),

7. Melanie SCHWARZ (ITA), 1:05,98(7),

8. Marlies WAGNER (AUT), 1:06,73 (8),

9. Veronika NACHMANN (GER), 1:06,80(9),

10. Tina UNTERBERGER (AUT), 1:07,16(10),

 

 

World Cup Standing Doubles (4/6):

 

 

1. Pavel PORSHNEV/Ivan LAZAREV (RUS)                                                 340

2. Patrick PIGNETER/Florian CLARA (ITA)                                                   300

3. Christian SCHOPF/Andreas SCHOPF (AUT)                                            265

4. Andrzej LASZCZAK/Damian WANICZEK (POL)                                        250

5. Aleksandr EGEROV/Petr POPOV (RUS)                                                   244

6. Christian SCHATZ/Gerhard MÜHLBACHER (AUT)                                  211

7. Thomas KAMMERLANDER/Christoph REGENSBURGER (AUT)          151

8. Björn KIERSPEL/Christian WICHAN (GER)                                              123

9. Pavel SILIN/Iwan RODIN (RUS)                                                                   84

10. Galabin BOTZEV/Petar SAVOV (BUL)                                                      70

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chris Karl

FIL Media Service

---

Tell the whole story with photos, right from your Messenger window. Learn how!