“We are five girls in the team and each can beat the others, this is why we are so strong”, resume Renate Gietl, Irene Mitterstieler and Renate Kasslatter (all ITA) after the race, grinning from the podium. In the second race of the season the winner was Renate Gietl for the second time. “I had an excellent run in the first leg, but a bad flaw in the second. I was just lucky that I regained my full concentration immediately, so that I could attack in the last part of the track.” It was a difficult race, mainly due to the warm weather conditions. “Well, we were told that there were problems in the first part of the track, but you just have to adjust. I usually can adjust quickly to new conditions or tracks, that might have been one of the reasons why I have won today”, said Gietl.
Happy about being runner up was Irene Mitterstieler, who had been the loser in the qualification (only four girls per nation are allowed in the World Cup) in the first race this winter. But she took it easy: “We have such a good atmosphere in the team, we spend a lot of time together, also in summer. It is a fact that we have to give it all in each training run, but this is why we are so strong.”
New spirits found Renate Kasslatter, who after a great season last year found herself on the podium again for the first time this winter. “I have changed my material, I have a new sled now. This gave me new motivation and of course the fact that I have become Italian Champion last week. But who knows, maybe lately I have just been on the brakes a bit too much or wanted to be too perfect.”

In the double seaters event the win went to Reinhard Beer and Herbert Kögl. The Austrians who have been sledding together since the World Championships in 1996 (and also won the title there) took a lot of advantage out of their long year experience. The race had to be reduced to only one run to preserve the track for tomorrow´s men´s event. “Considering that we only had one training run and how difficult the conditions were, our experience was for sure our favour. We managed to adjust our material very well to the warm weather, but nevertheless it was quite a shaky run.” Their goal for the season is to win the overall World Cup. “To succeed there we better never step off the podium. Today the Russians showed how easy it is to lose it all.”
In fact, last year´s overall World Cup winners and winners of the first season race, Pawel Porschnev/Ivan Lazarev (RUS) had to settle for the 7th place after a messed up run.
But their spot on the podium was taken by another Russian couple: Denis Alimov/Roman Molistov, ranked third behind Schopf/Schopf (AUT), were the surprise of the race. “We only came to Europe one week ago and we had not had any training possibilities in Russia. But we liked this track from the very first moment, there are beautiful curves.” Denis Alimov regretted that the race was held in only one run: “If there had been a second run, I am sure we could have even won. We had a huge mistake in the middle part and we surely could have done better.”

Photo by: Bernhard Kogler