“I liked this track from the beginning”, said Austria´s Gernot Schwab after having won also the second men´s race within two days. Even more, he scored the fastest times in all four runs. “Now I want to win the overall World Cup”, he said, but adds: “To do so I know I have to win the next race, too, and if not, I am happy anyway. I have had a great season so far, have won both races here, so I have nothing to lose.” Runner up Patrick Pigneter was the only one who could keep up with Schwab: “In the first race I had a bit a problem with the set up of my sled, but today I got that fixed and saw that I can achieve the same times as Gernot, if I stay without a mistake. Today I was quite satisfied with my performance”, the World Junior Champion said. Third finished Schwab´s Austrian fellow Philipp Wagner, who achieved the second podium finish in his young career: “Considering that last year I was still competing in Intercontinental Cups and this is my first season as a senior, I am more than satisfied. In the first World Cup my set up of the runners was not really good, but we made some changes and now everything worked out well.”

The Canadians, ranked 16th, 18th and 22nd could call themselves lucky to stay in the competition since they had violated a rule. In a routine check in yesterday´s first run their runners had been clearly found too warm. This had happened accidentally as is sometimes does when the sleds are stored in a warm room and it is very cold outside. For the first time ever the Canadians found themselves in the luxury situation to have an indoor facility to prepare their sleds and happily made use of it. Wrong choice, it showed, since all three athletes had been disqualified first. Only after a protest, which team-leader Keith Simmons had turned in, in the late afternoon hours the jury decided to withdraw the disqualifications. But this was only because the organizers had failed to provide two independent devices to check the temperature at the start. There was just one device in use and only this minor formal flaw brought the Canadians back into their home competition.

In the women´s World Cup Russia´s Ekatharina Lavrentjeva remains unbeaten in this season. With five wins in a row she equals a record held by Irene Zechner (AUT) in the winter of 1995/6. But only Elvira Holzknecht (AUT) managed to win all races in one World Cup season. This was back in 1994/95 when there were just four races in one season instead of now six races. So Lavrentjeva might go for all the records if she also wins the World Cup finale in Austria next week. “Now I have to win in Oberperfuss”, the Russian said with a smile, knowing that in her present condition it will be hard to beat her. Renate Gietl (ITA), leading after the first run, could have stopped the incredible winning streak, but saw herself no real chance: “I am glad that I had two pretty good runs in one race as in the current season this has been a bit of a problem for me. I had on excellent run and the next one was one to forget. Even though I had been leading after the first run, I had no chance to win. I just can´t beat the times Ekatharina is going, she would have been top five in the men´s race. But I have no grudge, one has to appreciate her excellent form.”

As well as in the single´s events the winner in the doubles was the same in both Grande Prairie World Cups. Pawel Porschnev/Ivan Lazarev (RUS) were the fastest in both runs again and now lead in the overall World Cup 25 points ahead of the Austrian Schatz/Mühlbacher and 35 points ahead of Beer/Kögl, who finally made peace with the Nitehawk track in Peace Country.

Final Results World Cup II:

Women (11):
1. Ekatharina LAVRENTJEVA (RUS), 1:19,14(2), 1:18,07(1), 2:37,21
2. Renate GIETL (ITA), 1:18,81(1), 1:19,11(2), 2:37,92
3. Christa GIETL (ITA), 1:19,62(3), 1:19,52(4), 2:29,14
4. Melanie BATKOWSKI (AUT), 1:19,90(4), 1:19,37(3), 2:39,27
5. Marlies WAGNER (AUT), 1:20,30(5), 1:19,80(5), 2:40,10
6. Sabine KOGLER (AUT), 1:20,68(6), 1:20,10(6), 2:40,78
7. Imelda GRUBER (ITA), 1:21,03(7), 1:20,27(7), 2:41,30
8. Michaela MAURER (GER), 1:21,66(9), 1:20,29(8), 2:41,95
11. Melissa JONES (CAN), 1:26,19(11), 1:28,05(11), 2:54,24

Men (28):
1. Gernot SCHWAB (AUT), 1:16,94(1), 1:16,93(1), 2.33,87
2. Patrick PIGNETER (ITA), 1:17,54(2), 1:17,58(2), 2:35,12
3. Philipp WAGNER (AUT), 1:17,85(3), 1:17,76(4), 2:35,61
4. Florian BREITENBERGER (ITA), 1:18,14(4), 1:17,62(3), 2:35,76
5. Florian BATKOWSKI (AUT), 1:18,19(5), 1:18,31(6), 2:36,50
6. Marcus GRAUSAM (GER), 1:18,55(7), 1:18,37(7), 2:36,92
7. Anton BLASBICHLER (ITA), 1:18,93(9), 1:18,14(5), 2:37,07
8. Gerald KAMMERLANDER (AUT), 1:18,48(6), 1:18,75(9), 2:37,23
9. Martin PSENNER (ITA), 1:18,85(8), 1:18,56(8), 2:37,41
10. Robert BATKOWSKI (AUT), 1:19,54(10), 1:19,16(11), 2:38,70
16. John GIBSON (CAN), 1:20,25(15), 1:20,51(18), 2:40,76
18. Kaj JOHNSON (CAN), 1:21,20(17), 1:20,50(17), 2:41,70
22. Corey PUSEY (CAN), 1:22,94(24), 1:21,33(22), 2:44,27

Doubles (6):
1. Pawel PORSCHNEV/Ivan LAZAREV (RUS), 1:23,29(1), 1:23,70(1), 2:46,99
2. Christian SCHATZ/Gerhard MÜHLBACHER (AUT), 1:23,34(2), 1:23,76(2), 2:47,10
3. Reinhard BEER/Herbert KÖGL (AUT), 1:24,91(4), 1:24,33(3), 2:47,10
4. Andrzej LASZCZAK/Damian WANICZEK (POL), 1:24,56(3), 1:24,70(4), 2:49,26
5. Andreas LEITER/Thomas WEISS (ITA), 1:25,38(5), 1:25,10(5), 2:50,48
6. Christian SCHOPF/Andreas SCHOPF (AUT), 1:26,09(6), 1:26,63(6), 2:52,72

World Cup Rankings (5/6):

Women:
1. Ekatharina LAVRENTJEVA (RUS) 500 points
2. Renate GIETL (ITA) 385
3. Christa GIETL (ITA) 350
4. Melanie BATKOWSKI (AUT) 335
5. Marlies WAGNER (AUT) 277
6. Imelda GRUBER (ITA) 224
7. Tina UNTERBERGER (AUT) 184
8. Michaela MAURER (GER) 169
9. Kinga GAWLAS (POL) 163
10. Julia VETLOVA (RUS) 126
16. Melissa JONES (CAN) 68

Men:
1. Patrick PIGNETER (ITA) 440
2. Gernot SCHWAB (AUT) 389
3. Florian BREITENBERGER (ITA) 339
4. Gerald KAMMERLANDER (AUT) 262
5. Anton BLASBICHLER (ITA) 255
6. Philipp WAGNER 248
7. Martin PSENNER (ITA) 239
8. Florian BATKOWSKI (AUT) 227
9. Marcus GRAUSAM (GER) 182
10. Robert BATKOWSKI (AUT) 171
19. John GIBSON (CAN) 85
22. Corey PUSEY (CAN) 81
22. Kaj JOHNSON (CAN) 81

Doubles:
1. Pawel PORSCHNEV/Ivan LAZAREV (RUS) 425
2. Christian SCHATZ/Gerhard MÜHLBACHER (AUT) 400
3. Reinhard BEER/Herbert KÖGL (AUT) 390
4. Andrzej LASZCZAK/Damian WANICZEK (POL) 322
5. Andreas LEITER/Thomas WEISS (ITA) 249
6. Christian SCHOPF/Andreas SCHOPF (AUT) 225
7. Aleksandr EGEROV/Petr POPOV (RUS) 152
8. Denis ALIMOV/Roman MOLISTOV (RUS) 141
9. Galabin BOTZEV/Zlatomir ZDRAVKOV (BUL) 112
10. Yevhen PRYSYAZHNYUK/Jury HARTSULA 102

Chris Karl
FIL Media Service