Latsch (ck) - The doubles’ event has always been and remains Austria’s best discipline. The Austrian team snatched two of the three medals on day one of the 8th Junior World Championships in Latsch/Laces. Christoph Regensburger defended his title from two years ago, even though he changed his partner as well as his position on the sled. In Deutschnofen he won the gold medal with front man Thomas Kammerlander in the rear position, but they split up soon after that. “It was obvious that our weights did no longer match and also Thomas would not have been a junior any more, so we went separate ways”, said Regensburger who teamed up with Dominik Holzknecht and slides as front man himself now. “We have been training hard for two years to manage to get used to the new positions and we are happy that it worked out so well today”, Regensburger said. Runner up was also a new pair. Pawel Silin (RUS) as well as Ilja Tarasov (RUS) participated two years ago already, but each of them with a different partner. Now, as a team, the students from Kandalaksha achieved their best career result. A bronze medal for their 20th birthday received Austria’s twins Dominik and Dieter Apolloner. Even though they finished one rank behind their result of two years ago, they have a good reason to be proud of their podium finish: “After our crash in the European Championships last year, it looked like I would never return to the track at all”, said Dieter Apolloner, who suffered from several ruptured ligaments in his ankle as well as some serious cuts and had been fighting hard for his comeback. Their training results were anything but perfect: “We were totally wrong with our equipment, we had way too sharp runners and were two seconds behind in each run. But we solved the problem, softened our runners a bit and that worked much better.” Women and men already had their first runs. In the women’s event the strong Italian team is ranked at the top of the field with Greta Pinggera in the leading position, followed by Alexandra Obrist. In the men’s event the traditional duel between Italy and Austria will be continued. Currently Alex Gruber (ITA) holds the first position, followed by Dominik Holzknecht (AUT), Martin Kerschbaumer (ITA) and Daniel Wagner (AUT). The second and third runs will be held tomorrow, Sunday, starting at 9.30am. Final Results Junior Doubles (7): 1. Christoph REGENSBURGER/Dominik HOLZKNECHT (AUT), 1:08,86(1), 1:09,21(1), 2:18,07 2. Pawel SILIN/Ilja TARASOV (RUS), 1:09,03(2), 1:09,24(2), 2:18,27 3. Dominik APOLLONER/Dieter APOLLONER (AUT), 1:09,50(3), 1:09,53(3), 2:19,03 4. Egor DOROFEEV/Victor ZAKHARCHENKO (RUS), 1:11,54(4), 1:13,86(5), 2:25,40 5. Daniele SESSA/Matteo ROSSET (ITA), 1:12,87(5), 1:13,97(6), 2:26,84