First Gold goes to Italy On day one of the 17th FIL World Championships host nation Italy won the first title. While FIL president Josef Fendt was watching, the Italy I team with Anton Blasbichler, Renate Gietl and Patrick Pigneter/Florian Clara raced to gold. For Blasbichler this was the fourth gold medal in his career, whereas for all his team members it was the first. Blasbichler as well as the doubles achieved the best run times, just Renate Gietl was beaten by Ekatharina Lavrentjeva (RUS) who won the bronze medal with her team. It was almost a family party in the Austria I team, who won the silver medal. Just because they do not have a competing sister, they had to take Melanie Batkowski into their family team. “But this was perfectly ok, Melanie did a great job”, joked the happy Schopf brothers Christian and Andreas and cousin Thomas. That they had used their new home made and family owned SAMS sleds to win the silver medal, made the joy even bigger. The small team of only three Russian athletes won the bronze medal. Ivan Lazarev did the single run as well as the double seater run. After the single runs Italy II had been on the third position, but with a great run of Pawel Porschnev/Ivan Lazarev Russia managed to claim the third spot on the podium. Among the spectators was also Italy´s ski star Peter Fill, who had just returned from the alpine skiing World Championships in Val d`Isere in France. The Luge Championships will be continued tomorrow, Saturday, with the single seater events. The official opening of the 17th FIL World Championships will be conducted by FIL president Josef Fendt in tonight´s Opening Ceremony. Results: 1. Italy I 89 Points (Anton BLASBICHLER, Renate GIETL, Patrick PIGNETER/Florian CLARA) 2. Austria I 85 Points (Thomas SCHOPF, Melanie BATKOWSKI, Christian SCHOPF/Andreas SCHOPF) 3. Russia II 80 Points (Ivan LAZAREV, Ekatharina LAVRENTJEVA, Pawel PORSCHNEV/Ivan LAZAREV) 4. Italy II 73 Points (Total Time 2:55,52) (Hannes CLARA, Evelin LANTHALER, Thomas WEISS/Andreas LEITER) 5. Austria II 73 Points (Total Time 2:56,62) (Thomas KAMMERLANDER, Tina UNTERBERGER, Christian SCHATZ/Gerhard MÜHLBACHER) 6. Poland 71 Points (Adam JEDRZEJKO, Natalia WANICZEK, Andrezej LASZCZAK/Damian WANICZEK) ck FIL Media Service