Zelezniki (ck) - Blue skies and sunshine made the final event of the GERMANPIPE World Cup in the skiing area of Soriska Planina/Zelezniki a perfect day, but its downside was that the sun had destroyed the track at the start. FIL Technical Delegate Josef Ploner therefore decided that a “transplantation of ice” was needed. He gave the order to cut ice from the finish area in the shadow and have the pieces transported up the track and re-implanted at the start. So the race could be held almost according to the original schedule, only the last run of the doubleseaters had to be cancelled.
The winners were the same as the day before, but for Patrick Pigneter/Florian Clara (ITA) the sixth win in the sixth race meant that they broke the twelve-year-old record of Helmut Ruetz/Andi Ruetz (AUT), who had been beaten in their last race of the season. “Of course we had the record in mind when suddenly everybody talks about it, but we could go into the race today with a very relaxed attitude, we had nothing to lose”, said Pigneter. Porschnev/Lazarev and Egerov/Popov (both Russia) took the ranks two and three, just like the day before.
In the women´s competition the close fight between Renate Gietl (ITA) and Melanie Batkowski (AUT) was continued. While yesterday Gietl was the luckier one with five hundredths of a second ahead of the Austrian, Batkowski´s answer was the fastest time in the second run which made her finish second, one hundredths ahead of Gietl. Batkowski had been sixth after the first run and it was her brother who helped her to win four places in the final result: “Florian changed the runners on my sled and he made some minor adjustments. I could feel it right away that I had a much better grip in the second run. I did not make any mistakes in the first, I was just slow which was because of the wrong settings of my sled.” Now Melanie Batkowski counts ten podium finishes in her career, but for the first win the 19-year-old will have to wait for next winter.
Renate Gietl was not disappointed by being beaten by Batkowski, she was happy with her performance: “All I wanted was a podium finish. So I was among the top three in all races except one in this season. Yesterday I already fixed my second place in the overall ranking, so I can be really satisfied with my season.” It seems like the top spot is reserved for Ekatharina Lavrentjeva anyway. She proved once again that she does not even need perfect runs to win a race: “I had a big mistake at the end of the second run, but at the end I won again, thank God”, said the Russian, who has won the overall ranking for the fifth time now.
In the men´s event Patrick Pigneter (ITA) demonstrated once more that he is racing in his own league. For the fourth time in this winter he managed to win the single and the double seater race. “This time it was even easier”, he said, “because the double was after the single. the change this way is much easier than the other way round.” Runner up was once again Gerald Kammerlander (AUT), who really adjusted well to the warm weather conditions in Zelezniki: „I do not only like the smooth surface, I also enjoy racing on this course very, very much”. Kammerlander had three podium finishes this season which makes it his personal best so far. European Champion Robert Batkowski (AUT) finished third.

Results:

Singles Women (13):

1. Ekatharina LAVRENTJEVA (RUS), 1:02,22(1), 1:04,55(2), 2:06,77
2. Melanie BATKOWSKI (AUT), 1:03,28(6), 1:04,47(1), 2:07,75
3. Renate GIETL (ITA), 1:02,97(3), 1:04,79(4), 2:07,76
4. Julia VETLOVA (RUS), 1:03,06(4), 1:04,73(3), 2:07,79
5. Renate KASSLATTER (ITA), 1:02,96(2), 1:05,10(6), 2:08,06
6. Evelin LANTHALER (ITA), 1:03,12(5), 1:05,09(5), 2:08,21
7. Marlies WAGNER (AUT), 1:04,80(7), 1:06,21(7), 2:11,01
8. Tina UNTERBERGER (AUT), 1:04,81(8), 1:06,90(9), 2:11,71
11. Nina BUCINEL (SLO), 1:05,95(10), 1:08,05(12), 2:14,00

Singles Men (32):

1. Patrick PIGNETER (ITA), 1:00,85(1), 1:02,05(1), 2:02,90
2. Gerald KAMMERLANDER (AUT), 1:01,35(2), 1:02,32(2), 2:03,67
3. Robert BATKOWSKI (AUT), 1:01,49(3), 1:02,90(8), 2:04,39
4. Michael SCHEIKL (AUT), 1:01,96(7), 1:02,55(4), 2:04,51
5. Florian BREITENBERGER (ITA), 1:01,61(4), 1:02,91(9), 2:04,52
6. Anton BLASBICHLER (ITA), 1:01,71(5), 1:02,94(10), 2:04,65
7. Mathias RAINER (ITA), 1:02,10(10), 1:02,64(5), 2:04,74
8. Florian BATKOWSKI (AUT), 1:02,19(11), 1:02,67(6), 2:04,86
9. Hannes CLARA (ITA), 1:01,88(6), 1:03,05(12), 2:04,93
10. Thomas KAMMERLANDER (AUT), 1:02,44(12), 1:02,53(3), 2:04,97
11. Ivan LAZAREV (RUS), 1:02,45(13), 1:02,82(7), 2:05,27
12. Rudi RESCH (ITA), 1:02,06(8), 1:03,24(13), 2:05,30


Doubles (12):

1. Patrick PIGNETER/Florian CLARA (ITA), 1:07,31
2. Pawel PORSCHNEV/Ivan LAZAREV (RUS), 1:07,49
3. Aleksandr EGEROV/Petr POPOV (RUS), 1:08,27
4. Thomas WEISS/Andreas LEITER (ITA), 1:08,34
5. Christoph KNAUDER/Thomas KNAUDER (AUT), 1:08,96
6. Christian SCHATZ/Gerhard MÜHLBACHER (AUT), 1:09,00
7. Andrzej LASZCZAK/Damian WANICZEK (POL), 1:09,34
8. Martin MAYERHOFER/Siegfried TRUPPE (AUT), 1:09,49


GERMANPIPE World Cup Overall Ranking (6/6 after elimination of worst season result):

Singles Women:

1. Ekatharina LAVRENTJEVA (RUS) 500
2. Renate GIETL (ITA) 425
3. Melanie BATKOWSKI (AUT) 370
4. Renate KASSLATTER (ITA) 300
5. Julia VETLOVA (RUS) 281
6. Marlies WAGNER (AUT) 259
7. Tina UNTERBERGER (AUT) 219
8. Evelin LANTHALER (ITA) 188
9. Katrin MLADEK (AUT) 175
10. Melanie SCHWARZ (ITA) 171
11. Kinga GAWLAS (POL) 164
12. Nina BUCINEL (SLO) 160
13. Veronika NACHMANN (GER) 152

Singles Men:

1. Patrick PIGNETER (ITA) 485
2. Gerald KAMMERLANDER (AUT) 332
3. Florian BREITENBERGER (ITA) 331
4. Gernot SCHWAB (AUT) 314
5. Robert BATKOWSKI (AUT) 305
6. Anton BLASBICHLER (ITA) 259
7. Hannes CLARA (ITA) 249
8. Mathias RAINER (ITA) 235
9. Michael SCHEIKL (AUT) 208
10. Florian BATKOWSKI (AUT) 199
11. Thomas KAMMERLANDER (AUT) 172
12. Georg MAURER (GER) 156
13. Marcus GRAUSAM (GER) 142
13. Björn KIERSPEL (GER) 140
15. Ivan LAZAREV (RUS) 131
18. Kaj JOHNSON (CAN) 115
23. Miha MEGLIC (SLO) 94
30. John GIBSON (CAN) 63

Doubles:

1. Patrick PIGNETER/Florian CLARA (ITA) 500
2. Pawel PORSCHNEV/Ivan LAZAREV (RUS) 410
3. Andrzej LASZCZAK/Damian WANICZEK (POL) 336
4. Christian SCHATZ/Gerhard MÜHLBACHER (AUT) 315
5. Aleksandr EGEROV/Petr POPOV (RUS) 301
6. Björn KIERSPEL/Christian WICHAN (GER) 254
7. Martin MAYERHOFER/Siegfried TRUPPE (AUT) 219
8. Galabin BOTZEV/Chavdar ARSOV (BUL) 179
9. Yevhen PRYSYACNYUK/Maryan HYZNER (UKR) 172
10. Vitaliy ZAKHAROV/Ihor SENYUK (UKR) 170

Chris Karl
FIL Media Service

Results: