Seemingly without any nerves and cold blooded appeared meanwhile 16-year-old Melanie Batkowski when she went for her second big title within only one month. In Latsch at the World Championships her run had been the basis for Austria’s team gold medal, now in Kandalaksha she won with the fastest times in all three runs and was the only athlete who managed to score a time under 55 seconds. “I had big problems in training and therefore I was not nervous at all before the race. But then, when I was leading, I got a little nervous and before the last run, I was really nervous”, she admitted. She still has a lot of goals: “Next year I would love to win a medal in the Junior Worlds and maybe I can finish on the podium now and then in the World Cup.” Considering her performance in the current season she also might be a contender at the senior’s European Championships.
Silver as well as bronze medal went to Italy. World Cup experienced Barbara Abart eventually took bronze which already seemed out of sight after a messed up first run. On second rank a new face was seen: Imelda Gruber, who might make the fight within the Italian team for the four World Cup permits an even tougher one in the coming season.

A tough fight was also seen in the men’s event: only by one hundredth of a second Hannes Clara finished ahead of his fellow Italian Patrik Pigneter, who had won bronze in yesterday’s double seater event. Pigneter’s partner of yesterday, too, managed to win the second medal within two days. Alexander Pamer took bronze again in today’s race.

The organizers of the event with mayor of Kandalaksha, Vitaly Golubev as their front man, were pleased about the competition days and so were the representatives of the International Luge Federation. Neither freezing temperatures around 20 centigrade below zero nor the exposed position at the White Sea north of the artic circle proved to be a problem. Everything went well and Kandalaksha with its sledding school for more than 200 kids showed interest in further and closer cooperation with Central Europe.