Extraordinary warm weather – about 0° degrees Celsius – and as a result extremely hard conditions made the winning series of the Polish Dream-Team break up. Thus the Russian double Pawel Porschnev/Ivan Lazarev made use of their home advantage and won this 3rd World Cup in beating the Polish leaders of the World Cup ranking. But Andrzey Laszczak and Damian Waniczek don’t take their defeat too serious, “Our aim is winning the World Cup ranking and we are still leading with some distance. ”For the Russians this is their first World Cup victory, and as it is their first year competing in the World Cup this is a rather respectable success.
The hard conditions in Paramonowo, which is about 80 km outside Moscow, also bothered the Austrian athletes and so Reinhard Beer and Herbert Kögl were rather satisfied with their third rank. “At the end the track was very mellow, that was bad for us because we have more weight than others but we did our best and the third place is okay for us”, said Kögl.
In the women’s competition the Russian Ekaterina Lavrentjeva could make use of her home advantage as well and reached the gold medal. But the sensation was done by Elvira Holzknecht from Austria, who, after a long break due to a serious injury, did a successful comeback in finishing on the third place. ”I’m really glad about my third rank. But my aim is to win a medal at the World Championship in Slovenia, which is not going to be easy as under the feminine top athletes there are about seven or eight that could win the title”, said the Austrian. A respectable performance has also been done by the Italian Sonja Steinacher. She finished third after having only been seventh in the first round.
Final Results:
Women:
1. Ekaterina Lavrentjeva (RUS), 46,79 (1), 47,61 (1), 1:34,40;
2. Christa Gietl (ITA), 46,90 (2), 47,63 (2), 1;34,53
3. Sonja Steinacher (ITA), 47,5 (7), 47,69 (3), 1:35,19;
3. Elvira Holzknecht (AUT), 47,29 (4), 47,90 (5), 1:35,19;
5. Irene Mitterstieler (ITA), 47,20 (3), 48,02 (6), 1:35,22
6. Julia Vetlova (RUS), 47,49 (6), 47,76 (4), 1:35,25;
7. Marlies Wagner (AUT), 47,37 (5), 48,26 (10), 1:35,63;
8. Sandra Mariner (AUT), 47,72 (8), 48,11 (8), 1:35,83;
9. Renate Gietl (ITA), 47,83 (9), 48,12 (9), 1:35,95;
10. Sabine Kogler (AUT), 48,16 (10), 48,02 (6), 1:36,18;
Double Seaters:
1. Pawel Porschnev/Ivan Lazarev (RUS), 48,09 (1), 48,39 (2), 1:36,48;
2. Andrzey Laszczak/Damjan Vaniczek (POL), 48,25 (2), 48,32 (1), 1:36,57;
3. Reinhard Beer/Herbert Kögl (AUT), 48,57 (3), 48,90 (3), 1:37,47;
4. Harald Kleinhofer/Gerhard Mühlbacher (AUT), 48,59 (4), 49,34 (6), 1:37,93;
5. Denis Alimov/Roman Molvistov (RUS), 49,32 (7), 49,04 (4), 1:38,36;
6. Wolfgang Schopf/Andreas Schopf (AUT), 49,98 (9), 49,31 (5), 1:39,29;
7. Günther Innerbichler/Alex Innerbichler (ITA), 49,30 (6), 50,03 (7), 1:39,33;
8. Martin Gras/Harald Laimer (ITA), 49,17 (5), 50,51 (10), 1:39,68;
World Cup Standings (after two out of six races):
Women:
1. Ekaterina Lavrentjeva (RUS) 250
2. Sonja Steinacher (ITA) 210
3. Renate Gietl (ITA) 199
4. Barbara Abart (ITA) 170
5. Elvira Holzknecht (AUT) 148
6. Marlies Wagner (AUT) 142
7. Sandra Mariner (AUT) 139
8. Sabine Kogler (AUT) 137
9. Christa Gietl (ITA) 127
10. Julia Vetlova (RUS) 125
11. Irene Mitterstieler (ITA) 115
12. Ewelina Zurek (POL) 70
13. Magdalena Zawada (POL) 66
14. Mateja Kralj (SLO) 58
15. Anna Braun (GER) 32
15. Ekaterina Zaroutskaja (RUS) 32
17. Oksana Elesina (RUS) 30
17. Karolina Waniczek (POL) 30
19. Sylvia Plucnarova (CZE) 28
19. Radostina Vucheliyska (BUL) 28
21. Sylwia Zarzecka (POL) 26
Double Seaters:
1. Andrzej Laszczak/Damian Waniczek (POL) 285
2. Pawel Porschnev/Ivan Lazarev (RUS) 240
3. Reinhard Beer/Herbert Kögl (AUT) 225
4. Wolfgang Schopf/Andreas Schopf (AUT) 155
5. Martin Graf/Harald Laimer (ITA) 148
6. Harald Kleinhofer/Gerhard Mühlbacher (AUT) 145
7. Björn Kierspel/Hansjörg Mühlbacher (GER) 114
8. Günther Innerbichler/Alex Innerbichler (ITA) 106
9. Simone Deme/Michel Squinabol (ITA) 88
10 Denis Alimov/Roman Molvistov (RUS) 55
11. Guido Hilgartner/Siegfried Truppe (AUT) 50
12. Andrezj Tyrna/Tomasz Kowalczyk (POL) 42
12. Armin Mair/Johannes Hofer (ITA) 42
14. Bostjan Vizjak/Borut Kralj (SLO) 36
15. Alexandrej Egarov/Petr Bopov (RUS) 34
16. Emil Lazarov/Desilav Charlov (BUL) 32
ck
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