Clean Sweep for Patrick Pigneter (ITA) Gietl (ITA) beats Lavrentjeva (RUS) “It was my biggest goal to win here and I cannot really believe yet that I have reached it”, said the new World Champion Renate Gietl (ITA) after winning her second gold medal within two days by a three hundredths winning margin. “Two gold medals were the maximum to win and it all went so well”, said Gietl, who is now World Champion with the team as well as in the single seater event. “I have done here very well in the training runs already, my weakest point was the start and I could improve my starting time within the two competition days.” That her strongest competitor Ekatharina Lavrentjeva completed the race with an excellent third run, could not impress the Italian: “I did not even hear her time, I was fully focused on myself and I was almost convinced that I would win.” After having won three World Championship titles Russia´s Ekatharina Lavrentjeva had to settle for silver today: “I am satisfied, I have made mistakes in the first run, the following runs were better. My third run was excellent, I could not do more than that.” The duel between Gietl and Lavrentjeva will be continued in only one week when the World Cup final will be held in Russia, where Lavrentjeva hopes to fight back. However, with her five medals in World Championships she is thze moist successful female athlete in the records of natural track luge. At the nearing end of her career Renate Kasslatter (ITA) made herself a present by winning the bronze medal. “My primary goal was certainly not to win a medal, I had to fight to qualify to be here.” But when the medal was so close she did not want to let it go and proved better nerves than local heroine Evelin Lanthaler: “After the first run In was fourth, when I was third after the second run I wanted the medal. I was not nervous, I was very convinced of my performance and I did well in my last run”, said Kasslatter, who has a three and a half year old daughter. “I will complete this season with the final in Russia and then I will retire. This decision was made before the season already. Then I will live for my family”, she said. And it was just the bib number 15 which brought her luck in her last major event: January 15th is her birthday. Local girl Evelin Lanthaler was not too disappointed about her fourth place: “It was very difficult for me to race here at my home track. I woke up early in the morning and could not go back to sleep. The pressure was really high and today I knew after a few turns that this would not be a perfect run.” It was her first participation in World Championships and she has many more to come. Three gold medals in three races made Patrick Pigneter (ITA) the super star of these World Championships. “I wanted to win here so badly, all the pressure came from myself, but I was very relaxed in my last run”, said Pigneter, who won the team event, the double seater as well as the single seater race. “It did not run as smoothly as I had hoped, though. Suddenly there were strong opponents I had not thought of, eventually I had a lot of luck on my side. I didn´t think my time would be good enough for the gold medal”, he said. After the second run Thomas Kammerlander had taken the lead and until the very last turn he looked like the logical winner. “I had a huge mistake at the exit of the last turn, but I am really satisfied with the silver medal. We all made mistakes in the last run and without those the result would probably have been the same. I do not think that I threw away the title”, said Kammerlander, who had become double seater European Junior Champion (with Christoph Regensberger) just last weekend. Also Thomas Schopf (AUT) jeopardized his bronze medal with a not so good third run: “My equipment was by far not perfect, in the second run I was slipping and sliding, in the third run I had almost too much grip. But I don´t care, it is important that it was good enough to keep the third place and win the medal.” He managed to keep Hannes Clara at bay who attacked in the last run, but not even the fastest time in the third run could make him pass Thomas Schopf. Results: Final Results Women: 1. Renate GIETL (ITA), 0:56,46(1), 0:56,75(1), 0:56,88(3), 2:50,09 2. Ekatharina LAVRENTJEVA (RUS), 0:56,61(2), 0:56,78(2), 0:56,73(1), 2:50,12 3. Renate KASSLATTER (ITA), 0:56,74(4), 0:57,04(4), 0:57,03(4), 2:50,81 4. Evelin LANTHALER (ITA), 0:56,69(3), 0:57,16(5), 0:57,11(5), 2:50,96 5. Melanie BATKOWSKI (AUT), 0:58,65(10), 0:56,81(3), 0:56,86(2), 2:52,32 6. Tamara SCHWARZ (ITA), 0:57,73(5), 0:58,03(10), 0:57,64(7), 2:53,40 7. Julia VETLOVA (RUS), 2:53,72 8. Marlies WAGNER (AUT), 2:53,98 9. Michaela MAURER (GER), 2:54,10 10. Tina UNTERBERGER (AUT), 2:54,97 11. Nina BUCINEL (SLO), 2:58,25 12. Katrin MLADEK (AUT), 2:58,31 Final Results Men: 1. Patrick PIGNETER (ITA), 0:55,26(1), 0:55,22(2), 0:55,47(3), 2:45,95 2. Thomas KAMMERLANDER (AUT), 0:55,43(2), 0:54,91(1), 0:55,65(6), 2:45,99 3. Thomas SCHOPF (AUT), 0:55,48(3), 0:55,35(3), 0:55,76(8), 2:46,59 4. Hannes CLARA (ITA), 0:55,82(4), 0:55,50(5), 0:55,44(1), 2:46,76 5. Gernot SCHWAB (AUT), 0:56,22(7), 0:55,42(4), 0:55,59(5), 2:47,23 6. Michael SCHEIKL (AUT), 0:56,29(8), 0:55,81(10), 0:55,45(2), 2:47,55 7. Gerald KAMMERLANDER (AUT), 2:47,81 8. Andreas CASTIGLIONI (ITA), 2:48,22 9. Rudi RESCH (ITA), 2:48,23 10. Georg MAURER (GER), 2:49,18 11. Anton BLASBICHLER (ITA), 2:49,60 12. Florian CLARA (ITA), 2:49,61 20. John GIBSON (CAN), 2:52,28 23. Greg JONES (CAN), 2:53,92 25. Kaj JOHNSON (CAN), 2:55,18 ck FIL Media Service