Vatra Dornei (ck) - After the track workers’ nightshift and moving the start time to 8am, one competition run for men and for women could be held in the spring like weather of Vatra Dornei. To be on the safe side the race director had decided to hold only one combined run for World and Nations’ Cup. The decision proved to be right as by the time when Ekatharina Lavrentjeva (RUS) and Patrick Pigneter (ITA) were awarded their flowers, the sun was out again. Lavrentjeva was the designated overall world cup winner already – for the tenth time in her career – and enjoyed a race without any pressure: “It was the same as always, just without stress”, she said. The stress had the two competitors behind her who were still fighting for the second place in the overall world cup. Evelin Lanthaler (ITA) won that fight with a second place by a margin of only seven hundredths of a second ahead of Greta Pinggera (ITA). “I did want to attack once again, but I did not have much hope to win, it was more important to stay ahead of Greta”, said Lanthaler, but already thinks ahead: “I hope that Kathi continues racing long enough that one day I can defeat her on the track. It would be a shame if we only could win again after she retired.” In fact, in the past two world cup season none of her co-competitors had been able to beat her. Lavrentjeva now hold the record of winning 12 consecutive races. A contender to break this winning streak could be Greta Pinggera who finished third in her first world cup season: “Considering that this was my first year, I have to be satisfied. I had a good run today, it was tight until the end and unfortunately I missed the second place closely”, she said. In the overall world cup Veronika Nachmann (GER) made a huge step forward the rank seven due to her two good results in Vatra Dornei (a fifth and an eight place). She pushed her team mate Michaela Maurer, who decided not to come to Romania, out of the top ten. Maurer eventually finished the season ranked 11th. In the Nations’ Cup which had 10 competitors, Austria took the places one and two. Maria Auer won ahead of Michelle Diepold. Svitlana Kravchuk (UKR) finished third once again. In the men’s event Hannes Clara (ITA) still had a minor chance to kick Patrick Pigneter (ITA) off the throne. “In the last race anything could have happened”, said the now eight-times overall world cup winner. “I was certainly a little bit more tense than in other races, but I managed to deliver my best performance. It looks easy and maybe some people think that I always win anyway, but I work hard for each win. It starts in summer and I think about luge every day. I live for the sport and from the sport”, said Pigneter who also helps to make natural track luge more popular: “On Friday I fly to Switzerland and have the opportunity to start as a forerunner in a Red Bull Crashed Ice event. Afterwards I will travel to Sweden with some team mates and we will take part in a race and will try to make the sport more attractive to young athletes.” Not the overall world cup, but the win in the last world cup race, Pigneter almost lost to Michael Scheikl (AUT), runner up with a 16 hundredths margin. “I had an incredible run, from the very top to the end. I hoped until the very end, especially when Patrick was behind me at the first intermediate time, but unfortunately it was not enough. However, it is a great motivation for next year, when you end a season with two podium finishes,” said Scheikl. A happy end had also Thomas Kammerlander (AUT) who had struggled with the track in Vatra Dornei from the beginning, but finished third in the race as well as in the overall ranking. “I really doubted myself, I just did not feel strong any more. I don’t know what the problem was, I did not change a lot at the equipment, I am just glad that it ended that way.” In the overall world cup to Russian athletes managed to break into the Italian-Austrian phalanx this year. Stanislav Kovshik and Jurii Talikh finished sixth and seventh, respectively. Adam Jedrzejko, ranked 9th, achieved the best result for Poland in singles in many years. In the men’s Nations’ Cup Florian Breitenberger (ITA) won ahead of Dominik Holzknecht (AUT) and Rudi Resch (ITA). Final Results Women: 1. Ekatharina LAVRENTJEVA (RUS), 1:13,62 2. Evelin LANTHALER (ITA), 1:14,25 3. Greta PINGGERA (ITA), 1:14,32 4. Tina UNTERBERGER (AUT), 1:15,41 5. Melanie SCHWARZ (ITA), 1:15,77 6. Marlies WAGNER (AUT), 1:15,86 7. LIUDMILA AKSENENKO (RUS), 1:16,47 8. Veronika NACHMANN (GER), 1:16,53 9. Svetlana ZHARAVINA (RUS), 1:17,15 10. Petra DRAGICEVIC (SLO), 1:17,38 Final Results Men: 1. Patrick Pigneter (ITA), 1:12,45 2. Michael SCHEIKL (AUT), 1:12,61 3. Thomas Kammerlander (AUT), 1:13,11 4. Jurii TALIKH (RUS), 1:13,17 5. Hannes CLARA (ITA), 1:13,19 6. Stanislav KOVSHIK (RUS), 1:13,24 7. Thomas SCHOPF (AUT), 1:13,27 8. Florian CLARA (ITA), 1:13,28 9. Christoph REGENSBURGER (AUT), 1:13,42 10. Anton BLASBICHLER (ITA), 1:13,49 11. Adam JEDRZEJKO (POL), 1:13,92 12. Gregorii BUKIN (RUS), 1:14,52 World Cup Final Ranking Saison 2012/13 (6/6): Men: 1. Patrick PIGNETER (ITA) 524 points 2. Hannes CLARA (ITA) 440 3. Thomas KAMMERLANDER (AUT) 420 4. Michael SCHEIKL (AUT) 391 5. Thomas SCHOPF (AUT) 343 6. Stanislav KOVSHIK (RUS) 247 7. Jurii TALIKH (RUS) 238 8. Alex GRUBER (ITA) 231 9. Adam JEDRZEJKO (POL) 206 10. Florian CLARA (ITA) 199 Women: 1. Ekatharina LAVRENTJEVA (RUS) 600 points 2. Evelin LANTHALER (ITA) 455 3. Greta PINGGERA (ITA) 430 4. Liudmila AKSENENKO (RUS) 318 5. Melanie SCHWARZ (ITA) 317 6. Tina UNTERBERGER (AUT) 297 7. Veronika NACHMANN (GER) 238 8. Christina GOETSCHL (AUT) 224 9. Petra DRAGICEVIC (SLO) 214 9. Marlies WAGNER (AUT) 214 11. Michaela MAURER (GER) 201 12. Wioletta RYS (POL) 186