At freezing temperatures and a chilly wind the double seaters opened the competition days at the European Junior Championships in Kandalaksha, Russia, 1144 km north of St. Petersburg. The home advantage and Experience from the World Cup were the Russians recipe to the top spot on the podium. Alexander Egorov/Peter Popov scored the best times in both runs and proved that they are at home at the track which basically leads into the White Sea.
Runner up was Siegfried Truppe (AUT) with his new partner Mario Schernthaner. Truppe already won the bronze medal in the World Junior Championships last year in Kindberg, but with his former partner Lukas Wagner.
In Kandalaksha the bronze medal went to Italy. Silver medalist in the World Junior Championships and bronze medalist of last month’s World Championships in Latsch, Patrik Pigneter gave his international debut as a double seater. Together with Alexander Pamer he had an excellent second run which took them from the fifth spot up to the second. Thus the reigning World Junior Champions Christian and Thomas Schopf (AUT) were pushed off the podium and had to settle for the forth place.

The single seaters started with one out of three runs. 15-year-old Team World Champion Melanie Batkowski (AUT) took the lead with a comfortable one-second-margin ahead of Marisa Clara (ITA). The men’s competition will be a close fight between Hannes Clara, Patrik Pigneter, Alexander Pamer (all ITA) and Russia’s Alexander Egorov. All four of them are separated by only 64 hundredths of a second.