Every two years the athletes aged under 20 are competing for medals in the Junior World Championships. This year the event will be hosted by Latsch/Laces in the Vinschgau/Val Venosta region in Italy. That Latsch/Laces jumped in as a replacement venue for one of the World Cup races just two weeks ago, is definitely not a disadvantage for some athletes. Many of the junior competitors are already racing in the World Cup and so got some additional runs on this track.

The most successful athlete of the season won´t be seen in Latsch/Laces, at least not racing. Patrick Pigneter (ITA) has finally turned 20 and is no longer a junior. After one silver and one gold medal in the single seaters (Kindberg 2004 and Garmisch 2006) and one gold medal in the doubles event – together with Florian Clara - (Garmisch 2006) he cannot participate any more. It will be interesting to see how Florian Clara, who is still young enough to compete, will make up for his missing front man. Most likely he will start with his cousin Hannes Clara, who was runner up in the World Cup two weeks ago.

For the women´s title only one name pops up: Melanie Batkowski (AUT). She already has three junior titles on her account: 2005 in Kandalakscha (RUS) and 2007 in St. Sebastian (AUT) she won gold at the European Championships as well as in the last edition of World Championships 2006 in Garmisch-Partenkirchen (GER). Aged 19 (she will turn 19 on February 11th) she is the number one in the Austrian World Cup team already and of course has to deal with a lot of high expectations. She will be challenged by a young ambitious Italian team.

In World as well as European Championships the single seaters have to complete three runs, whereas doubleseater evnts are held in two runs, just like the World Cup.

The medallists of the 2006 Garmisch-Partenkirchen (GER) World Championships were:

Junior Men:
1. Patrick PIGNETER (ITA)
2. Christian SCHWARZ (ITA)
3. Thomas SCHOPF (AUT)

Junior Women:
1. Melanie BATKOWSKI (AUT)
2. Tamara SCHWARZ (ITA)
3. Imelda GRUBER (ITA)

Junior Doubles:
1. Patrick PIGNETER/Florian CLARA (ITA)
2. Andreas LEITER/Thomas WEISS (ITA)
3. Christian SCHOPF/Thomas SCHOPF (AUT)

Program for Latsch/Laces:
Thursday, 7. February 2008:
7.00pm: Team Capatin´s Meeting

Friday, 8. February 2008:
9.00am: 1st Training Run single seaters (women and men)
afterwards 45 minutes break
afterwards 2nd Training Run single seaters (women and men)
1.15pm: 1st Training Run doubles
afterwards 45 minutes break
afterwards 2nd training run doubles
6.00pm Opening Ceremony

Saturday, 9. February 2008:
9.00am: 1st Competition Run doubles
11.00am: 2nd Competition Run doubles
afterwards Flower Ceremony
1.00pm: 1st Competition Run single seaters (women and men)

Sunday, 10. February 2008:
9.00am: 2nd Competition Run single seaters (women and men)
11.00am: 3rd Competition Run single seaters (women and men)
afterwards Flower Ceremony
1.00pm: Medal Ceremonies