Favorites meet expectations: Gold for Evelin Lanthaler (ITA) and Hannes Clara (ITA) Nova Ponente/Deutschnofen (ck) - “The pressure that I put on myself was the worst. Everybody expected me to win here” said the new Junior World Champion after a stressful weekend. “I was extremely nervous before the first run, then there was the accident of the Bulgarian girl and the race was interrupted for a long time and I came down from my anxiety level. But I did not want to be too calm, however, I managed a perfect first run”, explained Lanthaler who took the lead in yesterday’s first run and kept her position in today’s second and third runs. “The gap was not really huge, but enough to allow a safety run in the second, then I attacked once again in the third run”, she said. She won’t have the chance for a big party: “Tomorrow we are going to Latzfons already to start practise for the next World Cup”. With Alexandra Obrist as the runner up and Andrea Voetter as the bronze medallist the Italian success was complete. “My goal was to give my best and I won a medal. I wanted to lay a good basis in my first run and this tactic worked out well”, said silver medallist Obrist, a student from Brixen/Bressanone, who could gain some experience in occasional world cup starts. With her silver medal she certainly recommended herself for further nominations. Fellow Italian Andrea Voetter does not even think that far ahead: “I am only 14, all I wanted today was to show that youngsters like me can also perform really well, even at that age. I did not do well in the training runs, but it is only the race which counts”, she said. She attends the highschool for sports in Mals which has been the birthplace of many south tyrolian sports stars. In the men’s event it was pretty clear after one run that there would be a strong competition between the three athletes who are competing on senior level already. Eventually Hannes Clara was the one to win the title. “I knew that it would be very, very difficult to win here. Thomas Kammerlander is in great shape, Alex and florian Gruber both demonstrated in the training runs that they can be really fast here. I knew from my world cup win in Latsch that I am in good shape myself and that my equipment suits me well and I gave everything today. I am totally happy about my first World Champion title”, said Clara. Silver medallist Alex Gruber returned the compliment: “I knew that Hannes would be my strongest opponent here, I never saw myself as the favourite. I have been practising a lot and this medal is the result of hard work”, said Gruber, who is said to be the up and coming new talent. “I work out every day and I have got a feeling to take curves very smoothly, but talent is not enough, it is a basis to build on.” Looking back on his three runs he said: “In a way I do and do not like the track. I always lost time in the last turn, I could have done better there. But I liked the turns in the top part of the track and achieved very fast times there, so it the end it was even again.” Not fully satisfied but not upset either was bronze medallist Thomas Kammerlander: “The other two were faster. Hannes was not to beat here and Alex had a fantastic third run, so I guess I have to be satisfied.” Junior Women (17): 1. Evelin LANTHALER (ITA), 0:54,46(1), 0:55,19(1), 0:54,80(1), 2:44,45 2. Alexandra OBRIST (ITA), 0:55,00 (2), 0:55,68(2), 0:55,53(2), 2:46,21 3. Andrea VÖTTER (ITA), 0:55,92(3), 0:56,40(3), 0:56,15(3), 2:48,47 4, Nina BUCINEL (SLO), 0:57,43(4), 0:57,09(7), 0:57,28(5), 2:51,80 5. Maria KAMAREVTSEVA (RUS), 0:57,50(6), 0:57,08(6), 0:57,68(8), 2:52,26 6. Regina GILVANOVA (RUS), 0:57,91(9), 0:57,00(4), 0:57,62(7), 2:52,53 7. Christina GÖTSCHL (AUT), 0:57,64(7), 0:57,67(9), 57,58(6), 2:52,89 8. Natalia WANICZEK (POL), 0:57,45(5), 0:57,66(8), 0:58,05(10), 2:53,16 Juniors Men (31): 1. Hannes CLARA (ITA), 0:53,55(1), 0:53,60(1), 0:53,76(1), 2:40,91 2. Alex GRUBER (ITA), 0:53,71(3), 0:53,88(2), 0:54.03(2), 2:41,62 3. Thomas KAMMERLANDER (AUT), 0:53,69(2), 0:53,95(3), 0:54,23(3), 2:41,87 4. Simon RUNGGER (ITA), 0:54,70(5), 0:54,83(6), 0:54,71(4), 2:44,24 5. Simon KAINZWALDNER (ITA), 0:54,66(4), 0:54,78(5), 0:55,08(7), 2:44,52 6. Patrick SALCHER (AUT), 0:55,00(6), 0:55,00(8), 0:55,45(11), 2:45,45 7. Lukasz GORYL (POL), 0:55,84(11), 0:54,67(4), 0:55,10(8), 2:45,61 8. Luka SVAB (SLO), 0:55,70(10), 0:55,07(9), 0:55,28(9), 2:46,05 9. Christoph REGENSBURGER (AUT), 0:56,01(12), 0:54,85(7), 0:55,35(10), 2:46,21 10. Dominik HOLZKNECHT (AUT), 0:55,17(7), 0:55,44(11), 0:56,44(15), 2:47,05 The complete results can be found at www.fil-luge.org under results or events Chris Karl FIL Media Service