Novouralsk (ck) - “All night long I had the track in my head and the position for curve one, curve two, curve three…no, I did not sleep well”, said Ivan Lazarev will a smile of relief on his face. “To win the title here was really not easy, it was quite a mental pressure.” After three consecutive title wins, the Russians had to yield to Patrick Pigneter/Florian Clara (ITA) two years ago in St. Sebastian (AUT). In their home race they snatched the title back, even though they were only ranked second after the first run. They mobilized all their energies and succeeded: “The second run was not perfect, either, but it was good enough. Now we are fully motivated for the season final in Umhausen. We have been on the second position way too often”, they say. And indeed, they were runner up in a world cup race 26 times, more often than anybody else. The leaders after the first run, Christian Schopf/Andreas Schopf (AUT) eventually had to settle for silver, but let no doubt that the joy outlasted the anger. “Sure, you are a little bit angry at the beginning, but after ten seconds the joy was much bigger, especially with all the troubles we had with the set up of our equipment. Before we came here we did not even dare to dream of a medal”, said Christian Schopf, who won his first European medal. His brother Andreas completed his collection as he already won gold (2002) and bronze (2004) with his cousin Wolfgang Schopf. They praised the new champions: “They have shown a constant performance throughout the year, we still make little mistakes, so they have gold and we have silver.” “If we ever talked about any bad luck with hundredths of seconds, we got it all back in luck today”, said Christian Schatz/Gerhard Mühlbacher (AUT) on their bronze medal. Only a messed up second run of the Germans Björn Kierspel/Christian Wichan, who had been ranked third after the first run, helped the Austrians to their bronze medal. “We knew that our set up would work better in the second run, but we had a run full of mistakes. However, overall we presented ourselves in a good condition today, this was not the case two days ago in the world cup”, said Mühlbacher. Their luck was the German’s misfortune. They missed the bronze medal by three hundredths of a second and their disappointment was written all over their faces: “The medal was so close. We miscalculated the fifth curve and because it is so flat there, we lost all the time”. Indeed, until the intermediate time they had been straight on track for the medal, but eventually finished fourth. The title defenders Patrick Pigneter/Florian Clara (ITA) ruined all their chances to keep the title in the first run already. Because of a damaged sled they only finished ninth in the first run and did not even start in the second run. The European Championships will be continued and concluded tomorrow, Sunday, with the second and third runs of men and women. Especially the men’s race will be exciting as the top 11 are ranked within on second. Only Patrick Pigneter (ITA) upset the rest of the field once more and leads with more than half a second margin. Final Results Doubles (11): 1. Pavel PORSHNEV/Ivan LAZAREV (RUS), 1:03,21(2), 1:03,10(1), 2:06,31 2. Christian SCHOPF/Andreas SCHOPF (AUT), 1:03,18(1), 1:03,59(2), 2:06,77 3. Christian SCHATZ/Gerhard MÜHLBACHER (AUT), 1:03,74(4), 1:04,39(6), 2:08,13 4. Björn KIERSPEL/Christian WICHAN (GER), 1:03,54(3), 1:04,62(7), 2:08,16 5. Andrej LASZCZAK/Damian WANICZEK (POL), 1:04,14(5), 1:04,38(5), 2:08,52 6. Hannes CLARA/Stefan GRUBER (ITA), 1:04,84(6), 1:04,25(3), 2:09,09 Intermediate Results after one of Three Runs Women: 1. Ekatharina LAVRENTJEVA (RUS), 1:00,07(1) 2. Evelin LANTHALER (ITA), 1:00.70(2) 3. Melanie BATKOWSKI (AUT), 1:00,89 (3) 4. Renate GIETL (ITA), 1:01,74(4), 5. Melanie SCHWARZ (ITA), 1:01,80(5), 6. Ludmila AKSENENKO (RUS), 1:02,16(6), 7. Alena ASCHEULOVA (RUS), 1:02,32(7), 8. Tina UNTERBERGER, 1:02,59(8), Intermediate Results after one of Three Runs Men: 1. Patrick PIGNETER (ITA), 0:58,55(1) 2. Hannes CLARA (ITA), 0:59, 13(2) 3. Michael SCHEIKL (AUT), 0:59,14(3) 4. Anton BLASBICHLER (AUT), 0:59,59(4) 5. Adam JEDRZEJKO (POL), 0:59,79(5), 5. Alex GRUBER (ITA), 0:59,79(5), 7. Rudi RESCH (ITA), 0:59,82(7), 8. Thomas SCHOPF (AUT), 0:59,90(8) 9. Robert BATKOWSKI (AUT), 1:00,10(9) 10. Juri TALIKH (RUS), 1:00,19(10), 11. Gerald KAMMERLANDER (AUT), 1:00,20(11), 11. Gernot SCHWAB (AUT), 1:00,20(11), Remaining Program of the European Championships: Sunday, 19.02.2012: 10.00am: 2nd competition run women 10.30am: 2nd competition run men 11.30am: 3rd competition run women 12.00pm: 3rd competition run men afterwards Flower Ceremony women and men 3.00pm: Medal Ceremonies and Closing Ceremony