Olang (ck) - The third consecutive European Championship title goes to the Russians Pawel Porschnev and Ivan Lazarev. After Hüttau 2004 and in Umhausen 2006 now they also won the gold medal in Olang 2008. “We are very proud that we could show that Russia is the strongest nation in natural track luge. We won two medals today and hopefully will win another one in the women´s race,” said Lazarev. Looking at the season´s results so far it seemed a difficult task to defeat the so far unbeaten Pigneter/Clara (ITA). The Russians were very well aware that it would take all their efforts to claim the top spot. “We took maximum risk in the first run. After the first turn we were so fast and the board so close that I was a little bit scared.” The result was track record and a solid basis for the second run. “We did not know the time of Pigneter/Clara when we were at the start for the second run. We were fully concentrated and tried to risk less than in the first run and achieve a suitable time”, said Lazarev.
Being defeated for the first time this winter just at the European Championships in their home country did not mean the end of the world for Pigneter/Clara. “I am very satisfied with the result. In the first run we made a mistake with the settings of our runners. It was warmer in the training runs than today when it was minus 10 centigrades in the morning. We did not react to the changing weather conditions. In the second run everything was ok again”, said Florian Clara. For Patrick Pigneter the single´s event is still more important and he proved to be a fair sportsman: “The Russians definitely deserve to win the gold medal. They have trained a lot for it, probably more than we have, and they have been more balanced in their performance. We could have won, but we made a mistake and it is our own fault”.
A first time podium result in Championships celebrated the Russians Aleksandr Egerov and Petr Popov. “In Russia the European Championships count more than the World Cup. That´s why we did a lot of testing in the World Cup races to be good at our personal peak of the season”, explained Egerov. Their best season result in the World Cup had been a fourth place.
Austria and Germany both missed the podium closely. Christian Schatz/Gerhard Mühlbacher (AUT) could not defend their silver medal from Umhausen 2006 and had to settle for the unwanted fourth place. Bjoern Kierspel/Christian Wichan (GER) proved their constancy throughout the season and finished fifth.

In the women´s single event the Russian Ekatharina Lavrentjeva is in the lead after two runs, followed by the Italians Renate Gietl and Renate Kasslatter. World Junior Champion Melanie Batkowski (AUT) is ranked fourth and Russia´s Julia Vetlova fifth.
The third run will be held tomorrow, Sunday, as well as the men´s decision.

Results Doubles (14):

1. Pawel PORSCHNEV/Ivan LAZAREV (RUS), 1:12,51(1), 1:12,88(2), 2:25,39
2. Patrick PIGNETER/Florian CLARA (ITA), 1:13,06(2), 1:12,75(1), 2:25,81
3. Aleksandr EGEROV/Petr POPOV (RUS), 1:13,43(3), 1:13,87(3), 2:27,30
4. Christian SCHATZ/Gerhard MÜHLBACHER (AUT), 1:14,07(4), 1:15,12(8), 2:29,19
5. Björn KIERSPEL/Christian WICHAN (GER), 1:14,39(5), 1:15,02(7), 2:29,41
6. Denis ALIMOV/Roman MOLVISTOV (RUS), 1:14,97(6), 1:14,65(5), 2:29,62
7. Andrzej LASZCZAK/Damian WANICZEK (POL), 1:15,46(8), 1:14,60(4), 2:30,06
8. Christian SCHOPF/Herbert KÖGL (AUT), 1:15,61(9), 1:14,97(6), 2:30,58

Chris Karl
FIL Media Service