Third Title for Pavel Porshnev/Ivan Lazarev (RUS) Umhausen (ck) - “We have been waiting for four years for that title”, said Ivan Lazarev overjoyed after winning the race. “Our first run was not perfect, but very good and good enough to have some margin for the second run. So we did not have to attack and could complete a tactical run.” The Russian had been double seater world champions in 2005 and 2007 already, just in 2009 they went home without a medal. “We had a lot of problems back then, with our equipment as well as mentally”, they said. Today they certainly proved that they were mentally strong. “We were a bit nervous today. But as soon as we sit in the sled, we are fully focussed and all went well.” Good nerves were necessary in today’s race in which the standings after the first run were totally mixed up in the final run. Neither Christian Schatz/Gerhard Mühlbacher (AUT), who were ranked second, nor Florian Breitenberger/David Mair (ITA) or Christian Schopf/Andreas Schopf (AUT) could repeat their performance in the second run and keep their positions. Only Patrick Pigneter/Florian Clara (ITA) demonstrated their class and improved their position from the third to the second place, but could not defend their 2009 title. “It was completely our own fault”, said Pigneter. “After Gsies we were not satisfied with our sled and tried something new. But we did not have enough time to test all the equipment. For the first run we used the new sled, for the second one we took out the old one again.” Florian Clara already predicted that anything could happen in the second run: “We were third and the fourth not far behind us, so we had to come up with something.” An impressive performance was shown by Andrzej Laszczak/Damian Waniczek (POL). After a really bad start into the world cup season they were back in shape just in time for the world championships. They seem to have a special recipe for that as they won their fourth bronze medal in world championships already (2000, 2005, 2007 and now 2011). “In the second run we really did not make one single mistake. In the first we were too slow and ranked sixth, so there was only one chance: full attack”, said Damian Waniczek. “We started the season only in Gsies. Because of the warm weather we had maybe ten runs on ice together. Then we had new equipment and no time to find the best set up. Now everything is fine.” In the women’s event one run out of three was held already. Ekatharina Lavrentjeva (RUS) is in the first position ahead of Renate Gietl (ITA), Melanie Batkowski (AUT) and Melnaie Schwarz (ITA). Final Results Doubles: 1. Pavel PORSHNEV/Ivan LAZAREV (RUS), 1:16,71(1), 1:16,53(2), 2:33,24 2. Patrick PIGNETER/Florian CLARA (ITA), 1:17,56(3), 1:16,34(1), 2:33,90 3. Andrzej LASZCZAK/Damian WANICZEK (POL), 1:17,99(6), 1:16,34(3), 2:35,26 4. Christian SCHATZ/Gerhard MÜHLBACHER (AUT), 1:17,35(2), 1:17,95(6), 2:35,30 5. Florian BREITENBERGER/David MAIR (ITA), 1:17,65(4), 1:17,73(5), 2:35,38 6. Christian SCHOPF/Andreas SCHOPF (AUT), 1:17,88(5), 1:17,69(4), 2:35,57 7. Björn KIERSPEL/Christian WICHAN (GER), 1:19,16(8), 1:18,05(7), 2:37,21 8. Christoph KNAUDER/Thomas KNAUDER (AUT), 1:18,54(7), 1:19,18(9), 2:37,72 All runs are broadcasted live at: http://www.eventarena.tv/pages/winterarena/rodeln/wm-umhausen-2011/liveuebertragung.php