On a track where so far never a World Cup race has been held, the final World Cup decision will be made. But the host city is ready for the upcoming event: in the current season they already had an IC Cup there and back in 1997 they hosted the European Championships. Some of the medallists are still competing, Italy´s Martin Psenner (with his former partner Christian Hafner) took silver, Reinhard Beer/Herbert Kögl (AUT) finished third in the doubles´s event, Gerhard Pilz (AUT) won the bronze medal in the single event. But since then the track has been modernized, so it will be a new and nearly equal situation for all competitors.
The most exciting event will be the double´s as with a great performance in Passeier five or six pairs can still win the Overall World Cup. The Russians Porschnev/Lazarev are in the lead now, but Beer/Kögl are only 7 points behind. Considering that only the best five results will count for the World Cup, this opens some room for calculation.
Patrick Pigneter will be happy about the least result taken out, as he only scored 7 points in Lungiaru whereas he could win all other races throughout the season. So the current World Cup leader Martin Psenner will need two wins to be able to challenge his younger team mate Pigneter. The Austrians Gerhard Pilz and Gernot Schwab will both try to claim the third spot, but youngster Thomas Kammerlander, who won the Umhausen II race (tied with Pigneter) might as well have a chance if he can repeat his excellent performance of last weekend.
The women´s event has been more or less decided already. Even though Ekatharina Lavrentjeva´s (RUS) winning streak was broken now after eleven consecutive wins, there is only a theoretical chance that she might lose the World Cup to either Reante Kasslatter, Renate Gietl (both ITA) or Melanie Batkowski (AUT).
On Thursday the training runs will be held, on Friday the 5th World Cup (replacement for Hüttau which had to be cancelled) and on Saturday the 6th and last World Cup will be decided.
Track Info:
Length: 870m
Elevation Start: 1567,75m
Elevation Finish: 1453m
Difference: 114,75m
Average Descent: 13,19%
Minimum Descent: 4,94%
Maximum Descent: 19,74%
Number of turns: 9
Programme in Moos/Passeier:
Thursday, 08.02.2007
10am 1st Training Run Men and Women
12pm 2nd Training Run Men and Women
2pm 1st Training Runs Doubles
3pm 2nd Training Run Doubles
Friday, 09.02.2007
9am 1st Competition Run Doubles/Women (5th WC)
10.30am 2nd Competition Run Doubles (5th WC)
Flower Ceremony Doubles
12pm 1st Competition Run Men (5th WC)
afterwards 2nd Competition Run Women (5th WC)
2pm 2nd Competition Run Men
Flower Ceremony Men/Women
4pm Medal Ceremonies 5th World Cup
afterwards draw for the 6th World Cup
Saturday, 10.02.2007
9am 1st Competition Run Men/Women (6th WC)
11am 2nd Competition Run Men/Women (6th WC)
Flower Ceremony
1pm 1st Competition Run Doubles (6th WC)
2pm 2nd Competition Run Doubles (6th WC)
Flower Ceremony
4pm Medal Ceremonies 6th World Cup
4.30pm Medal Ceremonies Overall World Cup
Chris Karl
FIL Media Service
