Umhausen - “I greet all my kids in the kindergarden who always keep their fingers crossed for me”, said the new European Champion Christa Gietl with a broad smile in their face. She, who works in a kindergarden near Klausen in northern Italy had not expected to win the title. “Not one single moment I would have thought that I could win the gold medal here. All I did was trying to do my best. I messed up my second run, the third one was good”, said Christa Gietl, who was ranked fourth after the second run. “I am so happy to be back in the world class. Once you have fallen back a bit it is really a long and hard way to come back. I am happy that I succeeded. But the title today should have been my sister´s with that time margin she had.” Her sister Renate fully agrees: “It was completely my own fault that I did not win today. In the very first curve I already felt that it would be very hard, then I had a major mistake in the last turn, so that after all I am happy with the bronze medal. But I am happy for my sister.” The bronze medal happens to be Renate Gietl´s very first medal in European Championships, so now her collection is complete.
The middle spot between the sisters is taken by runner up Imelda Gruber, another Italian. The 19-year-old student has already been silver medallist in the junior World Championships, just in the World Cup she hardly ever made the team. “I had to qualify for this race as well, but we have tried a lot with the material and I had a good feeling already in the training runs”, she said.
Former European Champion and reigning World Champion Ekatharina Lavrentjeva (RUS) had been beaten for the first time in this winter. She finished fifth and Renate Gietl knows why: “We already saw in Olang that we can beat her as she did make little mistakes even though she won the race. With a strong Italian team behind her, the pressure gets bigger. And here on this track we all had the same amount of training runs which gives everybody the same chances. Now we have to keep on working to catch up with training runs.”
Two Austrians were the starts of the men´s event. Gernot Schwab, who had been in the lead from the very first moment, did not dare to relax after what he had seen in the women´s event: “It really does not take too much and you lose a second or even more, so I decided to take full risk also in my third run. Even though I had a good feeling all the time, I was very well aware of the fact that it is only over after the finish line”, he said. But even with full risk he did not make any mistakes and with the fastest times in all three runs won his first big title. “I always had two big goals, to win a World Cup race and to stand at the top of the podium in a major event. In this winter I have reached both”, said Schwab, who already had earned the reputation as the eternal runner up before he won the World Cup in Kindberg. His preparation had not been too smooth: in Olang he ruined his sled in a crash, only got in back from repair just in time for Umhausen, worked at the final adjustments until late at night on Thursday. In his private life he is moving and just in the middle of his last exams to get his degree in physical education. “It was almost a bit too much in these past weeks, the happier I am that it went so well for me.”
As happy as Schwab was his Styrian fellow, the only 17-year-old runner up Thomas Schopf who was the man of surprise in these Championships. “I already knew that I also can be good as a single seater and I already had decided to drop doubleseating”, said the still reigning doubleseter Junior World Champion. “Here I stayed pretty cool, because I had nothing to lose. The pressure was on the others, the experienced racers”, the youngster said, knowing that everybody was waiting to see if he would be able to repeat his excellent training performance also in the race. “After my second top time in training started to believe that I actually would have my chances in the race.” Thomas Schopf still waits for his first start in a World Cup race: “This was my goal for the season, but I guess this will have to wait until next season”.
The current leader in the World Cup, Italy´s Patrick Pigneter took the third spot on the podium. With three very balanced runs he won the bronze medal.

Final Results:

Women (21):
1. Christa GIETL (ITA), 1:18,27(2), 1:19,58(5), 1:18,31(1), 3:56,16
2. Imelda GRUBER (ITA), 1:18,16(1), 1:19,26(3), 1:18,77(2), 3:56,19
3. Renate GIETL (ITA), 1:18,41(3), 1:18,78(1), 1:19,45(3), 3:56,64
4. Melanie BATKOWSKI (AUT), 1:18,73(4), 1:18,83(2), 1:19,65(4), 3:57,21
5. Ekatharina LAVRENTJEVA (RUS), 1:18,79(5), 1:19,51(4), 1:19,71(6), 3:58,01
6. Sabine KOGLER (AUT), 1:19,39(6), 1:20,10(7), 1:19,79(7), 3:59,28
7. Tamara SCHWARZ (ITA), 1:19,99(10), 1:19,68(6), 1:19,89(8), 3:59,56
8. Marlies WAGNER (AUT), 1:19,72(7), 1:20,58(10), 1:19,67(5), 3:59,97
9. Michaela MAURER (GER), 1:20,05(11), 1:20,32(9), 1:20,13(9), 4:00,50
10. Melanie SCHWARZ (ITA), 1:19,86(8), 1:20,16(8), 1:21,07(12), 4:01,09
11. Anna BRAUN (AUT), 1:19,89(9), 1:20,68(11), 1:20,74(11), 4:01,31
12. Julia VETLOVA (RUS), 1:20,36(12), 1:21,26(12), 1:20,49(10), 4:02,11

Men (43):
1. Gernot SCHWAB (AUT), 1:17,05(1), 1:17,05(1), 1:17,36(1), 3:51,46
2. Thomas SCHOPF (AUT), 1:17,56(2), 1:17,74(5), 1:17,74(5), 3:53,04
3. Patrick PIGNETER (ITA), 1:17,77(3), 1:17,67(2), 1:17,66(2), 3:53,10
4. Florian BREITENBERGER (ITA), 1:17,98(5), 1:17,69(3), 1:17,67(3), 3:53,34
5. Andreas CASTIGLIONI (ITA), 1:17,80(4), 1:17,72(4), 1:17,84(6), 3:53,36
6. Gerald KAMMERLANDER (AUT), 1:18,34(9), 1:18,01(6), 1:17,69(4), 3:54,04
7. Martin PSENNER (ITA), 1:18,13(8), 1:18,10(7), 1:18,18(7), 3:54,41
8. Christian SCHWARZ (ITA), 1:18,07(6), 1:18,22(8), 1:18,34(8), 3:54,63
9. Anton BLASBICHLER (ITA), 1:18,10(7), 1:18,45(10), 1:18,47(9), 3:55,02
10. Florian BATKOWSKI (AUT), 1:18,50(11), 1:18,75(14), 1:18,60(11), 3:55,85
11. Daniel QUITTA (ITA), 1:18,95(15), 1:18,39(9), 1:18,74(13), 3:56,08
12. Robert BATKOWSKI (AUT), 1:18,59(12), 1:18,60(12), 1:18,97(16), 3:56,16
13. Philipp WAGNER (AUT), 1:18,43(10), 1:19,19(18), 1.18,61(12), 3:56,23
14. Georg MAURER (GER), 1:18,96(16), 1:18,75(14), 1:18,53(10), 3:56,24
15. Marcus GRAUSAM (GER), 1:18,84(14), 1:18,79(17), 1:18,74(13), 3:56,37
16. Gerhard PILZ (AUT), 1:18,77(13), 1:18,70(13), 1:19,04(18), 3:56,51

Chris Karl
FIL Media Service