FIL Würz Energy World Cup on Natural Track
Press Release
Saturday, January 15th, 2011
14th - 16th January 2011
Gsies/Val Casies (ITA)
Overall World Cup Wide Open again after Schopf/Schopf (AUT) win
With two fastest run times the brothers Christian and Andreas Schopf (AUT) dominated the race in Gsies/Casies and secured their second career world cup win. "Too many times we could not perform on the same level as we did in the training runs, in December in Novouralsk for example. Now we changed our mental preparation immediately before the start and today everything went perfectly well", said Christian Schopf. "Now we prepare individually, not as a pair. I need quiet and calm, Andreas prefers a little bit more action". Still, the longest track in the world cup circut did not allow them a flawless run. "This is not only an extremely long track, it is also extremely difficult", said Andreas Schopf. "In the second run we hit the snow twice, but the overall tuning seems to be quite perfect now. We get along great as a team and we have a sled which is good under hard as well as soft track conditions."
The new Wurz Energy World Cup leaders Porshnev/Ivan Lazarev (RUS) gave away their chances to win in the first run already: "We had a short lack of concentration in the first run. The second run was good, but it was too late."
For the first time in their incredible career – after 16 first and five second places - Patrick Pigneter/Florian Clara (ITA) finished third. "We do not have the advantage with our equipment any more as we used to have in the past years", said Pigneter. "We worked a lot more on the single sled and trusted the advantage we used to have on our doubles sled. But I am sure we will come up with something for the World Championships." The dominating athlete of the past five years also has problems to find his motivation: "Somehow I am missing that ultimate kick. I do not see a great future for our sport. Not a lot has happened in the past years. I give everything throughout the year and at the end of the day I ask myself: what for. That might easily be my last season."
Final Result Doubles (13):
1. Christian SCHOPF/Andreas SCHOPF (AUT), 1:27,54(1), 1:26,57(1), 2:54,11
2. Pavel PORSHNEV/Ivan LAZAREV (ITA), 1:28,22(3), 1:26,68(2), 2:54,90
3. Patrick PIGNETER/Florian CLARA (ITA), 1:28,08(2), 1:27,31(3), 2:55,39
4. Thomas SCHOPF/Andreas SCHÖPF (AUT), 1:28,96(5), 1:28,14(4), 2:57,10
5. Christian SCHATZ/Gerhard MÜHLBACHER (AUT), 1:28,65(4), 1:28,59(8), 2:57,24
6. Björn KIERSPEL/Christian WICHAN (GER), 1:29,00(6), 1:28,44(6), 2:57,44
7. Florian BREITENBERGER/David MAIR (ITA), 1:29,37(7), 1:28,18(5), 2:57,55
8. Christoph KNAUDER/Thomas KNAUDER (AUT), 1:30,20(9), 1:28,51(7), 2:58,71
World Cup Ranking Doubles (3/6):
1. Pavel PORSHNEV/Ivan LAZAREV (RUS) 270 points
2. Patrick PIGNETER/Florian CLARA (ITA) 255
3. Christian SCHOPF/Andreas SCHOPF (AUT) 220
4. Christian SCHATZ/Gerhard MÜHLBACHER (AUT) 180
5. Aleksandr EGOROV/Petr POPOV (RUS) 125
6. Björn KIERSPEL/Christian WICHAN (GER) 96
7. Stanislav KOVSHIK/Ilya TARASOV (RUS) 86
8. Thomas SCHOPF/Andreas SCHÖPF (AUT) 60
Chris Karl
FIL Media Service
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