After two races in Russia and one in Austria, the next two stations of the aqotec World Cup will be Latsch/Laces and Latzfons (in two weeks time) in South Tyrolia, Italy. These two races will most likely show who might win the world cup crystals when at the end of February the final race will be held in Garmisch-Partenkirchen in Germany.
Thomas Schopf (AUT) will have to try hard if he wants to be a serious contender for the overall world cup, as Patrick Pigneter (ITA) seems to be back on the winning track. He will come back to Latsch – where he has won all previous world cup races ever held there – as the new European Champion.
In the women's event there might be four contenders for the three medals now, after junior racer Evelin Lanthaler (ITA) has demonstrated that she is good enough for a podium finish among the experienced athletes by winning the silver medal in last week's European Championships. But the Gumpfrei track in Latsch is one of Melanie Batkowski's (AUT) favourite tracks and she will definitely want revenge for her fourth place in the Europeans. Renate Gietl (ITA) has not won a race in this season yet, Ekatharina Lavrentjeva (RUS) has never been defeated in Latsch so far – a breathtaking race can be expected.
Patrick Pigneter/Florian Clara (ITA) are the hunted in the doubles events. During the past two years they managed to develop ahead of their competitors. While three years ago there were six doubles good to win any time, recently only Pavel Porshnev/Ivan Lazarev (RUS) could beat the Italians. It does not look like it might be any different in Latsch.
The event starts with training runs on Friday, the doubles' race on Saturday and the singles' decisions on Sunday.
„Gumpfrei" Track Info:
Length: 936 m
Starthöhe: 1330 m
Zielhöhe: 1212 m
Höhendifferenz: 118 m
Program:
Friday, 22. Jan 2010:
09.00am: 1.Training run men and women
11.30am: 1.Training run doubles
12.30pm: 2.Trainings run doubles
07.00pm: Opening Ceremony
Saturday, 23. Jan 2010:
09.30am: 2.Training run women
10:00am: 1.competition run doubles
11.30am: 2.competition run doubles
afterwards: 1.competition run women
01.30pm: 2.Training run men
Sunday, 24.Jan 2010
10.00am: 1.competition run men
afterwards: 2.competition run women
12:00pm: 2.competition run men
02.00pm: Medal Ceremonies
Chris Karl
FIL Media Service
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Hello Lugenews readers! The European Championships was an awesome race. The track in St. Sebastian is super technical and fast. Congratulations, of course, to Patrick for claiming the only gold medal to elude him in his reign.
My race was pretty good. Unfortunately, I didn't really turn on the heat until the last run which was a fast one. Before the run I was sitting in 17th place and moved into 14th afterwards! Thank goodness, I still have yet to place outside of the Top 15 this season so happy days!
I've attached two full run videos with the update. They are from my second and third runs. Apologies for the poor quality of the third run but it was recorded on a cell phone.
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.
Russian winning streak broken – Pigneter/Clara new Doubles Champions
After having won three consecutive titles Russia's Pavel Porshnev/Ivan Lazarev had to give up any dreams of defending their title after the first run already. Their successors were Patrick Pigneter/Florian Clara (ITA) who could complete their collection of gold medals. So far they never had won a European title. "We wanted to win here and were ready to give whatever it takes. Two years ago in Olang we had to settle for silver, so this gold medal here was our biggest goal in this season", said Florian Clara. But they were very well aware that it would not be easy: "We were quite impressed by the times Schopf/Schopf achieved here. We thought it would be really difficult to beat them. In yesterday's team event we took a high risk and had a really good run." Which apparently gave them all the confidence they needed for today's race, as they won with the fastest times in both runs, with a winning margin of 1,52 seconds. If necessary, they could have gone faster: "The bottom part of the second run we finished with a safety run", said Clara.
All joy and happiness were Poland's silver medallists. After one bronze medal in European Championships (2002) and three bronze medals in World Championships (2000, 2005 and 2009) Andrzej Laszczak/Damian Waniczek achieved not only their best career result but also the best result for Poland since 1991 when Krzysztof Niewiadomski/Oktawian Samulsi became European Champions. Even though there performance had been improving during the season, they had not counted on winning a silver medal: "It came as quite a surprise, because we were far behind in the training runs. But we worked a lot for the team competition and changed the runners. Today we used the same equipment again and it worked well", said Waniczek. They were nervous before the second run, mainly because they were dreading finishing third once again.
Third place was taken by Russia's Aleksandr Egorov/Petr Popov, who always seem to manage to perform best in major events. They sustained the attack of Christian and Andreas Schopf (AUT) who wanted to climb the podium with a good second run. But Andreas Schopf was hindered by his back injury which had been taken care of by a doctor last night. So they had to settle for the unwanted fourth place.
After two runs in the women's event Ekatharina Lavrentjeva took the lead, even though the fastest times were achieved by Renate Gietl (ITA) in the first run and Evelyn Lanthaler (ITA) in the second run. Melanie Batkowski (AUT) is ranked fourth with all chances for a medal as there is only a 45 hundredths of a second gap between the first four athletes which promises an exciting final run tomorrow, Sunday.
Final Results Doubles (13):
1.Patrick PIGNETER/Florian CLARA (ITA), 1:15,09(1), 1:15,68(1), 2:30,77
2. Andrzej LASZCZAK/Damian WANICZEK (POL), 1:15,71(2), 1:16,58(2), 2:32,29
3. Aleksandr EGOROV/Petr POPOV (RUS), 1:15,85(3), 1:16,73(3), 2:32,58
4. Christian SCHOPF/Andreas SCHOPF (AUT), 1:16,09(4),1:17,48(5), 2:33,57
5. Thomas KAMMERLANDER/Christoph REGENSBURGER (AUT), 1:17,17(7), 1:17,24(4), 2:34,41
6. Pavel PORSHNEV/Ivan LAZAREV (RUS), 1:16,88(5), 1:17,69(6), 2:34,57
First Gold Medal of European Championships goes to Austria
In the first European team Championships ever the team of Austria I managed to win the gold medal. The decision was extremely tight with only one point margin between Austria I (86 points) and Italy I (85 points). Points are rewarded according to ranks in the respective runs, the total time is only used in case of a tied result in points. Melanie Batkowski achieved the full 30 points for her team which the brothers Christian and Andreas Schopf saw with great relief: "Melanie was our joker today and made up for us as our run was far from perfect. We did not have any major mistakes, it was just not ideal from top to finish, maybe also due to our nerves, the pressure was incredible", said the both after the race, even though they were harsh on themselves as they were only beaten by Patrick Pigneter/Florian Clara (ITA). Especially the doubles had to adjust to the rebuilt track: "There have been some changes in the bottom part of the track, now you can go full speed through the last turns, even as a doubleseater whereas we had to brake there on the old track", said Christian Schopf who aims for a podium finish also in tomorrow's double's event: "The pressure is certainly less now after having won a gold medal already and we know that we can be faster than today." His brother Andreas has been European Champion already, he won gold with his cousin Wolfgang Schopf in the 2002 European Championships in Frantschach (AUT).
A serious contender for the title will be Melanie Batkowski who achieved the fastest time today, but has not yet shown her best performance: "I am still working on the chicane and the curve in the steep part, I know I can do better there" said the Tyrolian who has won all possible team titles now: she had been team World Champion in 2005 and 2007. She handled the pressure of a home event really well: Of course I was nervous at the start and I have also been nervous for my team mates, but this is part of the game."
Italy I with a team of three experienced athletes and one rookie took the silver medal. Newcomer Alex Gruber first drew attention on him when he upset Italian fellow Patrick Pigneter in the Italian Championships a few weeks ago. The 17-year-old student of a sports school in Mals/Vinschgau started competitive racing comparatively late: "I only started seriously in 2004, before that I saw it as a hobby. My father got me interested in luge. He is still preparing my equipment and therefore a big thank you goes to him." Alex Gruber had his first international performance in last week's world cup in Umhausen. Today he finished fourth, but he achieved the fastest time in one training run. The solid basis for the eventual silver medal for the team of Italy I was the run of Patrick Pigneter/Florian Clara who once more were the fastest double.
The Austrian success completed the bronze medal of team Austria II with
Marlies Wagner, Gerald Kammerlander, Christian Schatz/Gerhard Mühlbacher. The rule that points are rewarded and added instead of actual times was to their advantage: with their final time of 3:41,49 they would have been ranked behind Italy II and Russia I, but with 80 points they managed to climb the podium. So the Kammerlander family can celebrate two medals today: gold for Thomas Kammerlander, the younger of the brothers, and bronze for Gerald, who achieved the fastest time in today's race. He will be a contender for a medal in the single's race whereas another contender will be condemned to watch the race: Gernot Schwab hoped until the last moment to be fit enough to participate in his home Championships, but his knee injury suffered in a training crash two weeks ago does not allow a start in the race.
Final Results Team Event:
1. Austria I3:37,9086
Melanie BATKOWSKI, 1:12,15(1)30
Thomas KAMMERLANDER, 1:10,75(3)28
Christian SCHOPF/Andreas SCHOPF, 1:15,00(2)28
2. Italy I3:67,6785
Renate GIETL, 1:12,41(3)28
Alex GRUBER, 110,88(4)27
Patrick PIGNETER/Florian CLARA, 1:14,38(1)30
3. Austria II3:41,4980
Marlies WAGNER, 1:14,23(5)26
Gerald KAMMERLANDER, 1:10,59(1)30
Christian SCHATZ/Gerhard Mühlbacher24
4. Italy II3:40,3278
Evelyn LANTHALER, 1:12,19(2)29
Stefan GRUBER, 1:10,69(2)29
Florian BREITENBERGER/David MAIR,1:17,44(6)20
5. Russia I3:40,4378
Ekatharina LAVRENTJEVA, 1:12,59(4)27
Aleksandr EGOROV, 1:12,32(6)25
Aleksandr EGOROV/Petr POPOV, 1:15,52(3)26
6. Poland3:47,9869
Natalia WANICZEK, 1:18,27(8)23
Adam JEDRZEJKO, 1:12,90(7)24
Andrzej LASZCZAK/Damian WANICZEK, 1:16,81(5)22
7. Germany, 3:46,8966
Michaela MAURER, Marcus GRAUSAM, Björn KIERSPEL/Christian WICHAN
8. Russia II, 3:48,4965
Ludmila ASTRAMOVISH, Jury TALYKH, Pavel SILIN/Ivan RODIN
For the first time ever a team event will be part of the European Championships which will be held this coming weekend in St. Sebastian near Mariazell, which is famous for pilgrimage. One run of a doubleseater and two single runs will be added, but athletes are allowed to start in both runs (single and double). This event will be held on the opening day of the Championships for which FIL president Josef Fendt is expected to attend.
He will be able to watch some exciting decisions. Superstar Patrick Pigneter (ITA) has won every available medal or title, except one: he has never been European Champion. In the two previous editions he won the bronze medal. Among his competitors will be two former and one reigning European Champion. Anton Blasbichler (ITA) won the title in 1993 in Stein/Enns (AUT) and 1999 in Szczyrk (POL), Gernot Schwab was Champion in 2006 in Umhausen (AUT) and Robert Batkowski (AUT) will try to defend his title.
In the double's event the title has been held by Russia's Pawel Porschnev/Ivan Lazarev for three consecutive championships, since Hüttau 2004. Only Helmut Ruetz/Andi Ruetz (AUT, 1995, 1997, 1999) achieved the same ever before. Patrick Pigneter/Florian Clara had to settle for silver last time in Olang.
In the women's event Ekatharina Lavrentjeva (RUS) is the number one contender. Not only has she won the title twice so far (2004 and 2008), in the previous years she has hardly been beaten at all. Only Renate Gietl (ITA) and Melanie Batkowski (AUT) managed to break her seemingly endless winning streak now and then. And those two will also be very determined to leave Mariazell with a medal. Renate Gietl has won two bronze medals in the last two editions of European Championships, but Melanie Batkowski finished fourth twice in a row.
The track in St. Sebastian has been rebuilt since last year's World Cup. The finish curve has been reconstructed and is less tricky now. Tomorrow, Thursday, all training runs will be held, Friday the team event will be held. Saturday and Sunday the singles will race for medals. In European Championships for singles three runs will be conducted.
Results of 2008 European Championships in Olang/Valdaora (ITA):
