Ekaterina Lawrentjewa from Russia, Florian Breitenberger from Italy and the doubles team Schopf/Schopf from Austria are the new European Junior Champions in natural track luge. With this, the favorites won this great event in Tiers (South Tyrol/ Italy). When it came to awarding the medals, however, the local athletes from South Tyrol were up front as six out of nine medals went to athletes from the Italian Winter Sports Federation. Ekaterina Lawrentjewa, 2000 World Champion in Olang, dominated the races at the „Nigerpass“ track above Tiers. She was the fastest woman in each of the three race runs and this time clearly beat the previous year’s winner Renate Gietl from South Tyrol/ Italy. Erna Schweigl from Passeiertal valley in South Tyrol, received the bronze medal; in 1999 she had won her first and only World Cup at this track. A great variety of nations competed in the women’s race and luge athletes from different nations finished at the top ranks. With Marlies Wagner (Austria/6th), Michaela Maurer (Germany/10th) and Magdalena Hula (Poland/11th) the top ranks of the final results were occupied by a genuine „mix of nations“.

The men’s race on the other hand, with the top ranks clearly in the hands of the athletes from Austria and Italy, was quite different. The favorite Florian Breitenberger from Italy could actually win the race in front of the local Rudi Resch from Tiers. The Austrian Gerald Kammerlander showed great results and could win the bronze medal in this race.

World Champion two weeks ago, now also European Junior Champion: The cousins Wolfgang and Andreas Schopf from Obdach in Styria (Austria) came up to the spectators‘ expectations and easily won their second title in this season. The second rank and with this the silver medal, went to the young team from South Tyrol Innerbichler/Innerbichler; the bronze medal went to the team Demé/Squinabol from Aosta valley in Italy. Altogether, 80 athletes from eleven nations competed at these European Junior Championships in Tiers (including the USA, who also participated in these open European Championships).