Deutschnofen/Nova Ponente (ck) - “Our goal was to win this title here and we have done a lot to make this happen, but that it was such a clear result was unexpected and makes us proud”, said Patrick Pigneter after a race in which once again Pigneter and Florian Clara (ITA) upset the field with two fastest run times and a 1.30 winning margin. “We had a perfect first run, but we attacked anyway in our second run. In a security run you mostly make mistakes”, said Pigneter. After having won their second world champion title after Passeier 2009, they are tied now in the eternal winning charts with Wolfgang Schopf/Andreas Schopf (AUT), Almir Betemps/Corrado Herin (ITA) and Andreas Jud/Ernst Oberhammer (ITA) who all stand at two titles. Only Pavel Porshnev/Ivan Lazarev (RUS) could win three titles so far, but finished only fifth in today’s race. The ranks behind Pigneter/Clara were highly sought after and Christian Schopf/Andreas Schopf (AUT), ranked fourth after the first run, made the race. “This is almost like winning, no, this was a win”, said Andreas Schopf happily after their second run which eventually secured them the silver medal, their second after Passeier 2009. After their crash in yesterday’s training they had to spend a restless night: “First it was not even clear if we could start today, because the injuries turned out to be worse than it originally looked like. There was a suspicion of a small fracture in Andreas’ ankle”, explained Christian Schopf. “Then we have to thank our team mates Tobias Angerer and Rupert Brüggler, who sacrificed their runners for us, otherwise we would not have been able to fix the sled. Finally we made some adjustments at the steels which proved to be ideal. In our first run we were a little bit insecure, but in the second run we attacked fully as we knew anything is possible.” With their speedy second run they won the internal Austrian duel and pushed Thomas Schopf/Andreas Schöpf one position back. However, with their bronze medal they achieved their best career result. “Finally it all came back, all the summer training, all the hard work. We have been pretty constant this year so far, but it’s wonderful that finally it all came together“, said Andreas Schöpf. In the women’s race to runs were held today, Saturday, and Ekatharina Lavrentjeva underlined her role as the top medal contender. With two fastest run times she is currently in the leading position. Three Italians fight for the two remaining medal ranks and Germany’s Michaela Maurer is ranked fifth. One men’s run is being held this afternoon, the following two runs will be held tomorrow, Sunday. Final Result Doubles: 1. Patrick PIGNETER/Florian CLARA (ITA), 0:57,90(1), 0:58,18(1), 1:56,08 2. Christian SCHOPF/Andreas SCHOPF (AUT), 0:59,10(4), 0:58,28(2), 1:57,38 3. Thomas SCHOPF/Andreas SCHÖPF (AUT), 0:58,91(3), 0:58,64(4), 1:57,55 4. Aleksandr EGOROV/Petr POPOV (RUS), 0:58,89(2), 0:58,82(5), 1:57,71 5. Pavel PORSHNEV/Ivan LAZAREV (RUS), 0:59,27(5), 0:58,48(3), 1:57,75 6. Hannes CLARA/Stefan GRUBER (ITA), 0:59,31(6), 0:58,99(6), 1:58,30 7. Christian SCHATZ/Gerhard MÜHLBACHER (AUT), 0:59,55(8), 0:59,73(8), 1:59,28 8. Pavel SILIN/Ivan RODIN (RUS), 0:59,40(7), 0:59,91(10), 1:59,31 9. Björn KIERSPEL/Christian WICHAN (GER), 0:59,71(9), 0:59,82(9), 1:59,53 10. Andrzej LASZCZAK/Damian WANICZEK (POL), 1:00,45(10), 0:59,70(7), 2:00,15 Women - Intermediate Ranking after two runs 1. Ekatahrina LAVRENTJEVA (RUS), 0:55,45(1), 0:55,85(1) 2. Melanie SCHWARZ (ITA), 0:56,11(2), 0:56,19(2), 3. Evelin LANTHALER (ITA), 0:56,27(3), 0:56,40(3), 4. Greta PINGGERA (ITA), 0:56,62(4), 0:56,72(4) 5. Michaela MAURER (GER), 0:57,09(5), 0:57,20(5) 6. Tina UNTERBERGER (AUT), 0:57,35(7), 0:57,46(6), 7. Sarah GRUBER (ITA), 0:57,21(6), 0:57,61(7) 8. Liudmila AKSENENKO (RUS), 0:57,47(8), 0:58,15(11), 9. Theresa MAURER (GER), 0:57,63(10), 0:58,10(10) 10. Veronika NACHMANN (GER), 0:57,53(9), 0:58,34(13)