In the women´s event Ekatharina Levrantjeva could call herself the most successful athlete already before the Latsch World Cup. But she prolonged her impressive winning streak and now is unbeaten in nine consecutive races. Ever since Lazfons on January 22nd 2005 the winner has been the Russian. “Well, I hope it will go on like this”, she joked after the race with an understandable easiness. “I came to Italy for training and some final tests on my equipment about ten days ago. There is no snow in Russia. So I had to test my new sled here”, she said. When Lavrentjeva started her winning streak nearly two years ago, Renate Gietl (ITA) had been the previous serial winner with four wins in a row. And in Latsch it was again Renate Gietl, who was the only one to challenge the Russian. Gietl was runner up and for a moment she had hoped that she could beat Lavrentjeva: “I had a very good feeling during my second run and I really thought that maybe I could win the race. But then Ekatharina also had a great second run and this was it.”

The third place took Austria´s Melanie Batkowski, who celebrated her first big career title on this very track back in 2005 when she became team World Champion at the age of 15. “Yes, I certainly do like this track here”, she said,” my first run was better than my second, I was a bit too wild in the second one.”

While Lavrentjeva prolonged her record, another streak was ended in Latsch: 5-times World Champion and former Overall World Cup winner, Gerhard Pilz (AUT) achieved his first podium after twelve consecutive races of missing it. His last podium finish had been the World Cup final in Aurach (AUT) in February 2004, where he won the race. Ranked 7th after the first run, he showed his class and routine in the second run and managed to finish third.

The top spot on the podium went to last year´s Overall World Cup winner Patrik Pigneter (ITA). He won with a 1,76 seconds margin ahead of his fellow Italian Martin Psenner. Pigneter had been in the lead already after the first run, but for the fun of it he did not go for a safety run, he went full speed: “I am so full of self confidence right now, feel that I am in a top form, so I just wanted to go for the maximum”, he said. And finished the second run with a new track record.

The double seater event was won by the Austrians Reinhard Beer/Herbert Kögl with what they called a once-in-a-lifetime-run. “Before the second run we knew we had to take full risk. We had heard the excellent time of the Russians and we knew it would be all or nothing for us. It was one of theses runs where you are at the limit from start to finish, and today it became the perfect run”, analysed Kögl after the race. “We had some problems with the sled in the first run, but we did not change anything, we just took full risk”. Also rewarded were Christian Schatz/Gerhard Mühlbacher for their preparations during the summer. “I never before spent so many hours in my basement working on runners, sleds and everything. But it was worth it, I think we are really well prepared for the season. Then of course the daily performance counts as well”, said Mühlbacher. They finished third after “a bad training run, a better first run and a quite good second run”.

Not really happy were the Russian runners up Porschnev/Lazarev. They did not have as much time for training as they would have like, also due to warm weather conditions. “We will stay in Europe now until the next race and use the time for training, I am sure than we will get rid of all the small mistakes we made today.”

The World Cup will be continued on January 13th/14th in Umhausen, Austria.

Doubles (9):

1. Reinhard BEER/Herbert KÖGL (AUT), 1:11,14(1), 1:10,40(1), 2:21,54
2. Pawel PORSCHNEV/Ivan LAZAREV (RUS), 1:11,42(3), 1:1062(2), 2:22,04
3. Christian SCHATZ/Gerhard MÜHLBACHER (AUT), 1:11.46(4),1:10,94(3), 2:22,40
4. Thomas WEISS/Andreas LEITER (ITA), 1:11,32(2), 1:11,72(4),2:23,04
5. Andrzej LASZCZAK/Damian WANICZEK (POL), 1:11,79(5), 1:11,80(5), 2:23,59
6. Denis ALIMOV/Roman MOLVISTOV (RUS), 1:12,38(6), 1:11,89(6), 2:24,27
7. Aleksandr EGEROV/Petr POPOV (RUS), 2:25,41
8. Martin MAYERHOFER/Siegfried TRUPPE (AUT), 2:26,27
9. Borut KRALJ/Ziga PAGON (SLO), 2:34,01

Women (13):

1. Ekatharina LAVRENTJEVA (RUS), 1:05,77(1), 1:05,38(1), 2:11,15
2. Renate GIETL (ITA), 1:05,84(2), 1:05,54(2), 2:11,38
3. Melanie BATKOWSKI (AUT), 1:06,07(3), 1:06,21(4), 2:12,28
4. Renate KASSLATTER (ITA), 1:06,77(4), 1:06,11(3), 2:12,88
5. Barbara ABART (ITA), 1:07,13(5), 1:06,78(5), 2:13,91
6. Melanie SCHWARZ (ITA), 1:07,22(6), 1:07,27(6), 2:14,49
7. Julia VETLOVA (RUS), 1:07,38(7), 1:07,49(8), 2:14,87
8. Marlies WAGNER (AUT), 1:07,81(9), 1:07,45(7), 2:15,26
9. Kinga GAWLAS (POL), 1:7,69(8), 1:08,11(9), 2:15,80
10 Tina UNTERBERGER (AUT), 1:08,22(11), 1:08,14(10), 2:16,36
11. Michaela MAURER (GER), 2:16,87
12. Kathrin MLADEK (AUT), 2:18,18
13. Nina BUCINEL (SLO), 2:23,77

Men (28):

1. Patrik PIGNETER (ITA), 1:04,21(1), 1:04,13(1), 2:08,34
2. Martin PSENNER (ITA), 1:04,97(2), 1:05,13(4), 2:10,10
3. Gerhard PILZ (AUT), 1:05,24(7), 1:04,96(3), 2:10,20
4. Christian SCHWARZ (ITA), 1:05,52(9), 1:04,90(2), 2:10,42
5. Gernot SCHWAB (AUT), 1:05,06(4), 1:05,44(6), 2:10,50
6. Florian BREITENBERGER (ITA), 1:05,20(6), 1:05,33(5), 2:10,53
7. Gerald KAMMERLANDER (AUT), 1:05,04(3), 1:05,52(9), 2:10,56
7. Mathias RAINER (ITA), 1:05,07(5), 1:05,49(8), 2:10,56
9. Andreas CASTIGLIONI (ITA), 1:05,31(8), 1:05,62(10), 2:10,93
10. Georg MAURER (GER), 1:05,99(11), 1:05,44(6), 2:11,43
11. Florian BATKOWSKI (AUT), 2:11,87
12. Robert BATKOWSKI (AUT), 2:11,93
13. Thomas KAMMERLANDER (AUT), 2:11,94
14. Marcus GRAUSAM (GER), 2:12,34
26. Julian SCHULTZ (USA), 2:21,65

World Cup Rankings (1/6):

Doubles:

1. Reinhard BEER/Herbert KÖGL (AUT) 100 points
2. Pawel PORSCHNEV/Ivan LAZAREV (RUS) 85
3. Christian SCHATZ/Gerhard MÜHLBACHER (AUT) 70
4. Thomas WEISS/Andreas LEITER (ITA) 60
5. Andrzej LASZCZAK/Damian WANICZEK (POL) 55
6. Denis ALIMOV/Roman MOLVISTOV (RUS) 50
7. Aleksandr EGEROV/Petr POPOV (RUS) 46
8. Martin MAYERHOFER/Siegfried TRUPPE (AUT) 42
9. Borut KRALJ/Ziga PAGON (SLO) 39

Women:

1. Ekatharina LAVRENTJEVA (RUS) 100 Punkte
2. Renate GIETL (ITA) 85
3. Melanie BATKOWSKI (AUT) 70
4. Renate KASSLATTER (ITA) 60
5. Barbara ABART (ITA) 55
6. Melanie SCHWARZ (ITA) 50
7. Julia VETLOVA (RUS) 46
8. Marlies WAGNER (AUT) 42
9. Kinga GAWLAS (POL) 39
10 Tina UNTERBERGER (AUT) 36
11. Michaela MAURER (GER) 34
12. Kathrin MLADEK (AUT) 32
13. Nina BUCINEL (SLO) 30

Men:

1. Patrik PIGNETER (ITA) 100 Punkte
2. Martin PSENNER (ITA) 85
3. Gerhard PILZ (AUT) 70
4. Christian SCHWARZ (ITA) 60
5. Gernot SCHWAB (AUT) 55
6. Florian BREITENBERGER (ITA) 50
7. Gerald KAMMERLANDER (AUT) 46
7. Mathias RAINER (ITA) 46
9. Andreas CASTIGLIONI (ITA) 39
10. Georg MAURER (GER) 36
11. Florian BATKOWSKI (AUT) 34
12. Robert BATKOWSKI (AUT) 32
13. Thomas KAMMERLANDER (AUT) 30
14. Marcus GRAUSAM (GER) 28
26. Julian SCHULTZ (USA) 15