Latsch (ck) - Even before they crossed the finish line Patrick Pigneter (ITA) threw his arms in the air. He knew that they had won again, the fourth time in as many races. Not winning the overall World Cup is only a mathematical chance. They still claim that the individual events are more important for them and that they do not have any idea how and why they are so much faster than their competitors. “Being relaxed and having great equipment is the recipe. Right now everything works out well and we hope it will go on like that”, said Clara. Their winning margin was nearly one second and they did not even perform perfectly: “We had a mistake in our first run and touched the board”, said Pigneter. However, in two weeks when Latsch will host the World Junior Championships, their winning streak will be over. Patrick Pigneter has finally reached the age of 20 which makes him too old to compete as a junior. Florian Clara will start with a different partner, most likely with his cousin Hannes. As runners up Andrzej Laszczak/Damian Waniczek (POL) finished on the podium once again. “Here the temperatures are lower than last week in Umhausen which suits our sled a lot better. We also exchange some of the rubber parts in the sled and last not least we had two good runs today”, said Waniczek.
The winning triple was completed by the reigning World and European Champions from Russia, Pawel Porschnev/Ivan Lazarev who were not fully satisfied with their third place. “We had a mistake in the fifth turn, otherwise a better result would have been possible.”

Christian Schatz/Gerhard Mühlbacher (AUT) missed the competition due to an injury suffered in training at Olang. Christian Schatz injured his ligaments in his ankle. It has not been decided whether they will be able to compete in the European Championships in Olang starting on February 16th. Their place took a newly formed Austrian couple: Herbert Kögl (whose long time partner Reinhard Beer has retired) teamed up with the almost 20 years younger Christian Schopf. In one training run (with Pigneter/Clara not participating) they achieved the second best time. In today´s race they had to settle for the sixth rank.

Results Doubles (12):

1. Patrick PIGNETER/Florian CLARA (ITA), 1:09,45(1), 1:09,49, 2:18,94
2. Andrzej LASZCZAK/Damian WANICZEK (POL), 1:09,86(2), 1:10,06(2), 2:19,92
3. Pawel PORSCHNEV/Ivan LAZAREV (RUS), 1:10,37(3), 1:10,91(3), 2:21,28
4. Rupert BRÜGGLER/Tobias ANGERER (AUT), 1:11,22(5), 1:10,60(5), 2:22,82
5. Aleksandr EGEROV/Petr POPOV (RUS), 1:11,09(4), 1:11,96(8), 2:23,05
6. Christian Schopf/Herbert Kögl (AUT), 1:11,35(6), 1:11,73(7), 2:23,08
7. Denis ALIMOV/Roman MOLVISTOV (RUS), 1:12,18(7), 1:11,63(6), 2:23,81
8. Björn KIERSPEL/Christian WICHAN (GER), 1:12,58(8), 1:11,27(4), 2:23,85
World Cup Ranking (4/6)
1. Patrick PIGNETER/Florian CLARA (ITA) 400
2. Pawel PORSCHNEV/Ivan LAZAREV (RUS) 295
3. Andrzej LASZCZAK/Damian WANICZEK (POL) 272
4. Björn KIERSPEL/Christian WICHAN (GER) 212
5. Christian SCHATZ/Gerhard MÜHLBACHER (AUT) 210
6. Aleksandr EGEROV/Petr POPOV (RUS) 207
7. Martin MAYERHOFER/Siegfried TRUPPE (AUT) 177
8. Rupert BRÜGGLER/Tobias ANGERER (AUT) 165
9. Yevhen PRYSYACNYUK/Maryan HYZNER (UKR) 138
10. Denis ALIMOV/Roman MOLVISTOV (RUS) 124

Chris Karl
FIL Media Service
www.powermoderator.tv