UMHAUSEN. From February 11th to 12th, the 34th FIL Junior European Championships on Luge on Natural Track were held in presence of Peter Knauseder, Vice President of the FIL, at the Grantau-track in Umhausen (AUT). The races were open for all continents.

At the men’s event, there has been an Austrian double victory: Fabian Achenrainer, this season’s Junior World Cup Champion, won the race in Umhausen and thus is also the new Junior European Champion. “It was a perfect day,” said the Austrian, who had also been able to win the silver medal at the doubles’ event along with his partner Miguel Brugger. “I, for one, wouldn’t mind if things continue this way in the next season.” Florian Markt, who was 1,21 seconds slower than his compatriot Achenrainer, won the silver medal, but he had hoped for more: “I messed up my first run because I made a mistake in the penultimate turn. But in the end, I’m happy about the silver medal, even though there was more in it for me today.” Laurin Jakob Kompatscher (ITA), who had ranked second after the first run, won the bronze medal: “It’s a pity that I’ve lost one rank in the second run, but all in all I’m quite happy with the outcome of the race,” said the Italian.

At the women’s event, Alexandra Pfattner (ITA) was not to beat on this weekend: The Italian athlete, who had also shown good performances in this year’s GRM Group World Cup, stood on top in the training as well as in the competition runs and won the gold medal with a margin of 1,23 seconds. “I knew my competitors are strong, therefore I had to give the best I can in the second run,” Pfattner said after the race. “The Junior European Championships were my primary goal this season, I trained a lot for it, and now I’m happy everything turned out good for me.” Local hero Maria Auer (AUT) ranked second and won the silver medal: “In training I wasn’t that good, but fortunately it got better in the competition runs,” said Auer, who had shared the second rank with Daniela Mittermair (ITA) after the first run. “I’ve tried not to think about it too much before the second run, therefore I wasn’t very nervous.” For the Tyrolean, it was a nice way to end this season. The bronze medal was awarded to Theresa Maurer (GER), who was a little bit annoyed because of her first run. “My first run wasn’t good, maybe because I’ve not taken that much risks,” said the German, who was nevertheless happy to have won bronze in the end.

At the doubles’ event, Manuel Gaio/Nicolo Debertolis (ITA) were victorious: With a time of 02:41.79 minutes, the Italian pairing won the race ahead of Fabian Achenrainer/Miguel Brugger (AUT) and Andriy Demchuk/Myroslav Lenko (UKR) and were awarded the gold medal. “We never expected to win here, but we really like the track, and it went very well for us today,” the Italians said after the race. In the end, they were 44 hundredths faster than the runner-ups from Austria. Bronze medal winners Demchuk/Lenko, who had ranked first in training as well as in the first run, came in third with a gap of 65 hundredths.

Results:
http://www.fil-luge.org/en/multimedia/fil-junior-european-championships-on-luge-on-natural-track