It was in the year 2000 in the Olang World Championships when Reinhard Beer/Herbert Kögl had been beaten by the Italians Armin Mair/David Mair and had to settle for silver. Ever since then Beer/Kögl have won each single race in Olang. Their competitors could hope for just a split second when Beer/Kögl – already in the lead after the first run – fell back to the only fourth intermediate time. But when they arrived in the finish they saw the one in front of their names and things had fallen into place again. “The part before the final curve always takes some courage. We took the biggest risk today and that was the secret of success.” The ranks two and three were taken by the Russians Pawel Porschnev/Ivan Lazarev and the Austrian rookies of the year Christian Schatz/Gerhard Mühlbacher. “This is for sure not our favourite track”, Mühlbacher said after the race,” and with our time margin of the first run, the win was out of sight anyway. But we had a good second run and are satisfied with the result”.

By far not satisfied is Russia´s serial winner Ekatherina Lavrentjeva. “I still make little mistakes, non of my runs has been a really perfect one. So, in theory, I could be even faster.” Even her not perfect runs seem to put her into her own league in this season. Only the sisters Renate and Christa Gietl can get close to her times. “We have been trying many things since the beginning of the winter, but still have not found the right ways to beat her”, Christa Gietl, third in today´s race said. Her sister Renate, runner up in Olang, has her own theories: “I believe it is due to her quantities of training runs. She never goes back home to Russia, she tours from track to the next. It cannot be the material, I am sure she has a perfect sled, but we too have excellent material”. However, next week at the European Championships in Umhausen, Austria, they will challenge her Russian colleague again.

Results:

Doubleseater(14):
1. Reinhard BEER/Herbert KÖGL (AUT), 1:13,55(1), 1:13,50(1), 2:27,05
2. Pawel PORSCHNEV/Ivan LAZAREV (RUS), 1:13,59(2), 1:13,63(2), 2:27,22
3. Christian SCHATZ/Gerhard MÜHLBACHER (AUT), 1:14,16(3), 1:13,71(3), 2:27,87
4. Christian SCHOPF/Andreas SCHOPF (AUT), 1:14,22(4), 1:14,97(6), 2:29, 19
5. Aleksandr EGEROV/Petr POPOV (RUS), 1:15,07(8), 1:14,64(5), 2:29,71
6. Patrick PIGNETER/Florian CLARA (ITA), 1:14,66(6), 1:15,23(7), 2:29,89
7. Andreas LEITNER/Thomas WEISS (ITA), 1:15,39(10), 1:14,55(4), 2:29,94
8. Andrzej LASZCZAK/Damian WANICZEK (POL), 1:14,26(5), 1:15,96(10), 2:30,22
9. Günther INNERBICHLER/Johannes HOFER (ITA), 1:14,76(7), 1:15,94(9), 2:30,70
10. Denis ALIMOV/Roman MOLISTOV (RUS), 1:15,35(9), 1:15,51(8), 2:30,86
14. Kaj JOHNSON/Greg JONES (CAN), 1:25,59(14), 2:17,67(14), 3:43,26

Women:
1. Ekatharina LAVRENTJEVA (RUS), 1:10,75(1), 1:11,08(1), 2:21,83
2. Renate GIETL (ITA), 1:10,98(2), 1:11,20(2), 2:22,18
3. Christa GIETL (ITA), 1:11,46(4), 1:11,33(3), 2:22,79
4. Melanie BATKOWSKI (AUT), 1:11,44(3), 1:12,25(5), 2:23,69
5. Marlies WAGNER (AUT), 1:11,88(6), 1:12,17(4), 2:24,05
6. Imelda GRUBER (ITA), 1:11,83(5), 1:12,38(6), 2:24,21
7. Michaela MAURER (GER), 1:12,33(7), 1:12,73(7), 2:25,06
8. Julia VETLOVA (RUS), 1:12,83(9), 1:12,87(8), 2:25,70
9. Tina UNTERBERGER (AUT), 1:12,76(8), 1:12,99(9), 2:25,75
10. Melanie SCHWARZ (ITA), 1:13,45(10), 1:13,52(10), 2:26,97
11. Anna BRAUN (AUT), 1:13,51(11), 1:13,74(11), 2:27,25
12. Kinga GAWLAS (POL), 1:14,57(12), 1:14,57(12), 2:29,14
13. Vroni NACHMANN (GER), 1:16,40(13), 1:16,97(14), 2:33,37
14. Olga SIDOROVA (RUS), 1:16,70(14), 1:16,82(13), 2:33,52

World Cup Rankings (3/6):
Doubleseater:
1. Reinhard BEER/Herbert KÖGL (AUT) 270
2. Christian SCHATZ/Gerhard MÜHLBACHER (AUT) 230
3. Pawel PORSCHNEV/Ivan LAZAREV (RUS) 225
4. Andrzej LASZCZAK/Damian WANICZEK (POL) 192
5. Aleksandr EGEROV/Petr POPOV (RUS) 152
6. Denis ALIMOV/Roman MOLISTOV (RUS) 141
7. Andreas LEITNER/Thomas WEISS (ITA) 134
8. Christian SCHOPF/Andreas SCHOPF (AUT) 120
9. Galabin BOTZEV/Zlatomir ZDRAVKOV (BUL) 112
10. Günther INNERBICHLER/Alex HOFER (ITA) 85

Women:
1. Ekatharina LAVRENTJEVA (RUS) 300
2. Renate GIETL (ITA) 240
3. Christa GIETL (ITA) 225
4. Melanie BATKOWSKI (AUT) 190
5. Marlies WAGNER (AUT) 152
6. Imelda GRUBER (ITA) 128
7. Julia VETLOVA (RUS) 126
8. Tina UNTERBERGER (AUT) 109
9. Melanie SCHWARZ (ITA) 91
10. Kinga GAWLAS (POL) 88
11. Karolina WANICZEK (POL) 85
12. Michaela MAURER (GER) 85

Photo: Reinhard Beer/Herbert Kögl (AUT) (c) Bernhard Kogler