Sometimes something good needs time: The 35-year-old experienced athlete Gerhard Pilz (AUT) won the today´s natural track luge World Cup race in Hüttau (AUT). Moreover, five-time world champion Gerhard Pilz won the World Cup for the first time. “I trained a lot to win this title, now I am very glad. I got on well with the track”, told Pilz after his victory.

Gerald Kallan (AUT), world champion of the last year, placed after a sensational second run on second position. He lost a lot of time in the first run after a mistake in the upper part of the track. His brother Roland reached on their “home track” the sixth place. This year´s world champion Anton Blasbichler (ITA) was beaten by Gerhard Pilz in Hüttau and in the World Cup. However, the Italian athlete was happy to win the second place in World Cup.

Last year´s World Cup winner Ferdinand Hirzegger (AUT) reached the seventh position in Hüttau and the third place in the World Cup. Although, there were many fans of Hirzegger near the track, he lost a lot of time in the first run. “I am not satisfied with my runs. I made many small mistakes especially in the first run”, said Ferdinand Hirzegger. The title holder told that he was sure not to defend the title after the race in Moscow one week ago. He is looking forward and told in an optimistic way: “There will be the next chance in the next year.” The young athlete Gerald Kammerlander (AUT) did a great job on today´s men´s singleseater. He placed on eleventh position and made his first World Cup points. “My runs were not good. I know that I can show more”, said Kammerlander highly motivated after the race.


Results Men´s Singleseater:

1. Gerhard PILZ (AUT) 1:01.14 (1), 1:02.32 (2), 2:03.46
2. Gerald KALLAN (AUT) 1:01.88 (4), 1:02.30 (1), 2:04.18
3. Anton BLASBICHLER (ITA) 1:01.84 (3), 1:02.30 (5), 2:04.46
4. Florian BREITENBERGER (AUT) 1:01.97 (6), 1:02.63 (6), 2:04.60
5. Robert BATKOWSKI (AUT) 1:01.81 (2), 1:02.82 (7), 2:04.63
6. Roland KALLAN (AUT) 1:01.91 (5), 1:02.88 (9), 2:04.79
20. John GIBSON (CAN) 1:06.01 (21), 1:06.25 (20), 2:12.26
23. Tom POWER (CAN) 1:09.69 (23), 1:10.11 (22), 2:19.80


World Cup Ranking Men´s Singleseater:

1. Gerhard PILZ (AUT) 415 Punkte
2. Anton BLASBICHLER (ITA) 360
3. Ferdinand HIRZEGGER (AUT) 321
4. Robert BATKOWSKI (AUT) 294
5. Gerald KALLAN (AUT) 291
6. Reinhard GRUBER (ITA) 248
7. Roland KALLAN (ITA) 246
8. Marcus GRAUSAM (GER) 208
9. Florian BREITENBERGER (ITA) 184
10. Martin GRUBER (ITA) 163
11. Martin PSENNER (ITA) 140
12. Borut KRALJ (SLO) 129
13. Gasper BENEDIKT (SLO) 122
14. Grega SPENDOV (SLO) 114
15. Gernot SCHWAB (AUT) 110
19. John GIBSON (CAN) 93
27. Andrew KOLODY (CAN) 44
28. Tom POWER (CAN) 43
30. Wolfgang BRETTNER (CAN) 39


Michael Unverdorben
FIL Media Service