NATURAL TRACK LUGE
Press Information
6th – 8th February 2010
Latzfons (ITA)
100th World Cup Start for Anton Blasbichler (ITA)
Once again the elite of Natural Track racers will meet in South Tyrol in Italy before there will be a two week's break in which their colleagues on artificial track luge will fight for Olympic medals in Vancouver. The season final will be held in Garmisch-Partenkirchen (GER) at the end February. Some of the seemingly assigned roles have changed during the season. In the doubles' event Patrick Pigneter/Florian Clara (ITA) are still racing in their own league. Only the crash in the second race in
In the Women's category Renate Gietl (ITA) is back on winning track and with Evelin Lanthaler (ITA) there are also Ekatharina Lavrentjeva (RUS) and Melanie Batkowski (AUT). This means there is an additional contender for the three podium spots.
In the Men's event it seems like a bunch of youngsters have finally managed to crack the superiority of Patrick Pigneter (ITA). At the beginning of the season Thomas Schopf (AUT) managed to beat the serial winner, recently Italian fellows Hannes Clara, Rudi Resch and Alex Gruber have become serious opponents.
Of course there is another Italian who should never be underestimated: Anton Blasbichler. He will celebrate a special anniversary in Latzfons, he will participate in his 100th World Cup race. The World Cup Series itself only celebrated its 100th race a few weeks ago, so Blasbichler missed exactly two world cups within 18 years. He won his first race in Moscow in 1994 and to now has earned 20 First Place finishes, which makes him the most successful athlete, followed by Gerhard Pilz (AUT) with 18 and Patrick Pigneter with 16 wins. With his most recent bronze medal in the European Championships two weeks ago, Blasbichler demonstrated that in his 19th world cup season he is "still good" for a podium finish.
The aqotec World Cup in Latzfons will be started with training runs on Friday, followed by the competitions runs in the doubles' race and one women's competition run on Saturday. It will be completed on Sunday with the singles' decisions.
"Lahnwiesen" Track Info:
Length: 908 m
Start Elevation: 1665m
Finish Elevation: 1549m
Difference: 116m
Maximum Descent: 20%
Minimum Descent: 3%
Average Descent: 12,78%
Program:
Friday, Feb 6, 2010:
Saturday, Feb 7, 2010:
afterwards: 1.competition run women
afterwards: 2.competition run women
Chris Karl
FIL Media Service
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