St. Sebastian - With winning margins of more or less two seconds Melanie Batkowski (AUT) and Patrick Pigneter (ITA) won their races. The third run had been close to being cancelled as in the warmest winter Europe has seen in 134 years, the track seemed to melt away. But eventually it was decided to conduct all three runs, a decision not all athletes approved. “I think it was wrong to hold all three runs”, said gold medallist Patrick Pigneter, “it was a very difficult race and there were stones in the track. The risk was too high in the end.” However, he will leave St. Sebastian with two gold medals and can look back at a successful season. He still has to compete in the Italian Championships, then the season will be over and he can think about hios future with might take him either to Innsbruck in Austria to study sports or he might start looking for a job.

Taking full risk in the last run put the 19-year-old Florian Clara (ITA) from fourth to the second place: “I gave it all, the track was tricky and everything, but in the end I did ok and the result is great.” The student of Mals sports school already won the gold medal together with Patrick Pigneter in the double seaters event and has been participating successfully in the World Cup: “As long as I can I want to do both, doubles and singles, for the time being it is fine for me.”

Dominik Wagner was third after the second run and remained on the third spot even though Florian and Hannes Clara switched places. Hannes, who had been second fell back and Florian passed Wagner after his hazardous third run. “For me it is a great end of a good season”, said Dominik Wagner. I could race in the World Cup once and became nineth and winning the bronze medal here, means a lot for me, considering that here are some really experienced World Cup racers including the overall winner Pigneter.”

Melanie Batkowski met all expectations and won her race, but never took it as granted: „I saw how much the Italians improved from their training runs to the actual race, so I never underestimated them, there are no wins granted,” she said and is very happy about having defended her title. At only 18 now, she will have one more chance to compete in European Junior Championships in two years and win the maximum of three titles.

One of the mentioned Italians was Tamara Schwarz: “I had problems with my equipment in the training runs, but thank God my trainers could fix it and it worked well in the race. I had some small flaws in each run, but altogether I am satisfied”, said Schwarz, who finished school last year and was a full time slider this winter. As a result she has had two World Cup starts already.

The bronze medal went to Kings Gawlas from Poland, who has been at the edge of the podium a couple of times, but so far she never managed to perform equally well in two runs. “This is my first international medal and I am very, very happy about it”, said the student of a sport school in Zywiec. She has become a regular in the top-ten results in the World Cup already and has a promising future: “I am only 17, so I have a lot of time. I do not like fast tracks, so when I came here and saw that the track was shortened, this was a very nice surprise for me.”

Final results junior men´s singles (30):
1. Patrick PIGNETER (ITA), 0:47,35(1), 0:46.56(1), 0:49,60(1), 2:23,51
2. Florian CLARA (ITA), 0:47,58(2), 0:47,92(4), 0:50,12(3), 2:25,62
3. Dominik WAGNER (AUT), 0:47,66(4), 0:47,76(3), 0:50,21(6), 2:25,63
4. Hannes CLARA (ITA), 0:47,60(3), 0:47,38(2), 0:50,80(11), 2:25,78
5. Thomas KAMMERLANDER (AUT), 0:47,74(5), 0:48,02(5), 0:50,15, 2.25,91
6. Christian SCHWARZ (ITA), 0:47,86(6), 0:48,19(9), 0:50,03(2), 2:26,08
7. Robert STADLER (AUT), 2:26,86
8. Michael SCHEIKL (AUT), 2:27,06
9. Thomas SCHOPF (AUT), 2:27,35
10. Philipp ANTHOLZER (ITA), 2:28,08

Final results junior women´s singles (19):
1. Melanie BATKOWSKI (AUT), 0:48,22(1), 0:47,86(1), 0:50,20(1), 2:26,28
2. Tamara SCHWARZ (ITA), 0:48,69(2), 0:48,61(3), 0:50,97(3), 2:28,27
3. Kinga GAWLAS (POL), 0:49,17(4), 0:48,31(2), 0:51,02(4), 2:28,50
4. Marisa CLARA (ITA), 0:49,00(3), 0:49,07(5), 0:50,47(2), 2:28,54
5. Nina BUCINEL (SLO), 0:49,40(5), 0:48,92(4), 0;51,22(5), 2:29,54
6. Katrin MLADEK (AUT), 0:49,50(7), 0:49,50(7), 0:51,48(7), 2:30,76
7. Melanie SCHWARZ (ITA), 2:31,69
8. Astrid VETTER (AUT), 2:32,56
9. Christina GÖTSCHL (AUT), 2:32,74
10. Ludmila ASTRAMOVICH (RUS), 2:33,26

ck

FIL Media Service