Latsch (ck) - They were in top shape and ready for the upcoming World Cup season when a training accident in Passeier put an end to the hopes of Weiss/Leiter (ITA), silver-medallists in the 2006 World Junior Championships. Andreas Leiter had suffered a two times fracture in his left leg and was supposed to be out for the whole season. Exactly three months later they are celebrating their so far biggest career-success by winning the World Champion title in the double seater´s event. “We gave 120 percent and did whatever training was possible under the circumstances.” While in the training runs the cousins Clara/Clara (ITA) had been ahead, Weiss/Leiter achieved the fastest times in both runs and took the gold medal. “We took a bigger risk than in the training runs and our new sled which we never used before this race here, went exceptionally well,” explained Thomas Weiss.
Hannes and Florian Clara competed together out of a necessity and ended up winning the silver medal. “Patrick Pigneter is no longer a junior, so I jumped in to replace him”, said Hannes Clara, whose main focus lays on single seater event (and in which he is one of the strongest medal contenders). “We probably could have won, but we have only ourselves to blame. We had a mistake in each run and at the end it was just not enough for the first place. I just don´t feel the same trust that I have with Patrick which is not surprising, Hannes and I have not been racing together very often”, explained Florian Clara.
Five days after their 16th birthday the twin brothers Dominik and Dieter Apolloner from Stadl/Mur in Austria made themselves a present and won the bronze medal. In their first international start they proved mental strength and with a great second run managed to claim the third spot on the podium. “We only started racing together one year ago” said the five minutes older Dominik. At the age of nine they were discovered by a trainer in their home area and ever since then worked their way up. “Our goal is to be part of the Austrian national team in next year´s World Championships in Passeier”, they say. It will be a tough way, as they cannot afford being professional athletes. Dominik works as a constructor, Dieter as a plumber. But this is a problem they share with most athletes in the luge community.

In the single´s events the first out of three runs were held this afternoon already.
Austria´s defending Champion Melanie Batkowski is in the lead, ahead of three Italians Melanie Schwarz, Evelyn Lanthaler and Alexandra Obrist. Already three seconds behind is Olga Sidorova (RUS) ranked fifth. In the men´s event Hannes Clara (ITA) is in leading position ahead of local hero Christain Schwarz. The Austrians Michael Scheikl and Thomas Schopf follow on positions three and four.

Results:
Final results doubles (11):

1. Thomas WEISS/Andreas LEITER (ITA), 1:10,00(1), 1:10,27(1), 2:20,27
2. Hannes CLARA/Florian CLARA (ITA), 1:10,32(2), 1:10,35(2), 2:20,67
3. Dominik APOLLONER/Dieter APOLLONER (AUT), 1:11,47(4), 1:11,12(3), 2:22,59
4. Rupert BRÜGGLER/Dominik HOLZKNECHT (AUT), 1:12,24(6), 1:11,25(4), 2:23,49
5. Pavel SILIN/Ivan RODIN (RUS), 1:11,95(5), 1:11,59(5), 2:23,54
6. Thomas KAMMERLANDER/Christof REGENSBURGER (AUT), 1:10,77(3), 1:14,10(7), 2:24,87
7. Vitaly ZAKHOROV/Ihor SENYUK (UKR), 2:27,66
8. Konstantin LARIONON/Ewgeni ISACHENKO (RUS), 2:29,17
9. Alexandr DASCHEVSKI/Vladimir BROVCHENKO (RUS), 2:29,61
10. Petar SAVOR/Stefan RAIKOV (BUL), 2:37,54


Chris Karl
FIL Media Service