European Junior Championships: stage for the stars of the future Laas (ck) - Once again the luge community will stop in the Italian mountains. This time the destination is the little village Laas which is famous for its white marble. Laas with its “Gefair” track has not hosted major events in a long time, but the organizers are well prepared and looking forward to have the junior championships in town. Last years’ results proved that the names of the junior champions are definitely noteworthy, as nearly all stars of the world cup tour have started their careers as junior medallists. The winner’s of the last Europena Junior Championships, Evelin Lanthaler (ITA) and Thomas Schopf (AUT) are both well known athletes among “the grown ups” by now. With Alexandra Obrist there is another young Italian who has already been successful in the world cup. In the women’s event it is most likely that medals will go to the athletes who already have some international experience. The men’s and doubles’ events, though, will be very interesting because all the world cup racers have grown out of the junior’s age (under 20). Here new names will be found on the podiums, the names of the future. The competition in Laas will start on Saturday at 9am. As in all championships there will be three runs for the single seaters, the doubles will have two runs. Track Info „Gafair“: Length: 850m Start elevation: 1003,30m above sea level Finish elevation: 878,54m Difference: 120m Maximum Descent: 24% Minimum Descent: 10% Average Descent: 14,1% Program: Friday, 04.02.2011: 9.00am: Begin of training runs 6.00pm: Opening Ceremony Saturday, 05.02.2011: 9.00am: 1st Competition run doubleseaters 10.30am: 2nd Competition run doubleseaters afterwards Flower Ceremony doubleseaters 11.30am: 1st Competition run women and men Sunday, 06.02.2009: 9.00am: 2nd Competition run women and men 11.45am: 3rd Competition run women and men afterwards Flower Ceremony 1.00pm: Medal Ceremonies Results of the last Junior Championships in 2009 in Lungiarue (ITA) Junior men: 1. Thomas SCHOPF (AUT) 2. Hannes CLARA (ITA) 3. Thomas KAMMERLANDER (AUT) 4. Michael SCHEIKL (AUT) 5. Luka SVAB (SLO) 6. Florian GRUBER (ITA) Junior women: 1. Evelin LANTHALER (ITA) 2. Melanie BATKOWSKI AUT) 3. Alexandra OBRIST (ITA) 4. Jasmin GÖGELE (ITA) 5. Sarah GRUBER (ITA) 6. Irma KARISIK (BIH) Junior doubles: 1. Thomas KAMMERLANDER/Christoph REGENSBURGER (AUT), 2. Rupert BRÜGGLER/Tobias ANGERER (AUT) 3. Damian FENDER/Dawid JACHNICKI (POL) 4. Vitaly ZAKHOROV/Ihor SENYUK (UKR) 5. Stanislav KOWSHIK/Ilia KOROBOV (RUS) 6. Maksin ZWETKOW/Denis MOISEEW (RUS)