Umhausen (ck) - Just like in the season opening the winners once again were Patrick Pigneter and Florian Clara (ITA). “Yesterday in the training run we did have some problems with our equipment, but we could solve everything. We knew that if everything goes well we can win again. The basis for our success was laid in the first run already.” With their second win in two races they are way ahead in the Overall World Cup already. The Polish team of Andrzej Laszczak/Damian Waniczek are 55 points behind the Italians already at that early stage. Laszczak/Waniczek, ranked second after the first run, messed up their second run and fell back on the fourth overall rank. Russia´s double Pawel Porschnev/Ivan Lazarev took the second spot. The Austrians Christian Schatz/Gerhard Mühlbacher were happy to finish third. “With the top teams so close together and you can easily have two good runs and still miss the podium”, Schatz said. “We had some troubles before we came to Umhausen, we had a training crash and were really busy to repair our sled. Thank God we could fix it and did not need a new one.”

In the women´s race Renate Kasslatter (ITA) and Ekatharina Lavrentjeva (RUS) were tied after the first run, but at the end the Russian stood on top of the podium by herself. “I felt very good after the first run, I did everything right. I took some days off, did not practise every day and tested some different tracks as well as some old and new sleds, ”said Lavrentjeva, who could win all World Cups in the season 2005/06 and every since then never finished less than second. Renate Kasslatter was satisfied with her third rank: “After the second run, when I saw that I was only 5th, I was pretty sure that I was even off the podium. So I am happy about being third, but I really screwed up my second run, I wanted too much. The track was becoming soft already because of the beginning rain and these conditions need very skilful turns not the aggressive style which I tried. But there will be another chance next week.”
Melanie Batkowski (AUT) achieved her eighth World Cup podium finish and still has to wait for her first win. “It was really close between Renate and me”, she said, “and in the second run I was the fastest. My goal is to be ahead of Ekatharina once and I am getting there. I hope that I can improve my performance next weekend”. Her podium finish also came very handy: “I have a present for my mother already, it will be her birthday tomorrow and she will get my flowers from the flower ceremony.”

Results:
Women (14):
1. Ekatharina LAVRENTJEVA (RUS), 1:17,60(1), 1:18,39(2), 2:35,99
2. Melanie BATKOWSKI (AUT), 1:18,07(3), 1:18,32(1), 2:36,39
3. Renate KASSLATTER (ITA), 1:17,60(2), 1:18,91(5), 2:36,51
4. Renate GIETL (ITA), 1:18,11(4), 1:18,68(3), 2:36,79
5. Marlies WAGNER (AUT), 1:18,54(5), 1:18,70(4), 2.37,24
6. Melanie SCHWARZ (ITA), 1:18,56(6), 1:19,27(7), 2:37,83
7. Tina UNTERBERGER (AUT), 1:18,98(9), 1:19,21(6), 2:38,19
8. Julia VETLOVA (RUS), 1:18,93(8), 1:19,30(8), 2:38,23
9. Tamara SCHWARZ (ITA), 2:38,29
10. Kinga GAWLAS (POL), 2:38,66

Doubles (12):
1. Patrick PIGNETER/Florian CLARA (ITA), 1:21,08(1), 1:21,26(1), 2:42,34
2. Pawel PORSCHNEV/Ivan LAZAREV (RUS), 1:21,46(3), 1:21,53(2), 2:42,99
3. Christian SCHATZ/Gerhard MÜHLBACHER (AUT), 1:21,47(4), 1:21,73(3), 2:43,20
4. Andrzej LASZCZAK/Damian WANICZEK (POL), 1:21,37(2), 1:22,65(7), 2:44,02
5. Rupert BRÜGGLER/Tobias ANGERER (AUT), 1:21,76(5), 1:22,31(5), 2:44,07
6. Björn KIERSPEL/Christian WICHAN (GER), 1:22,01(7), 1:22,27(4), 2:44,28
7. Aleksandr EGEROV/Petr POPOV (RUS), 1:21,98(6), 1:22,59(6), 2:44,57
8. Martin MAYERHOFER/Siegfried TRUPPE (AUT), 1:22,93(8), 1:23,43, 2:46,36
9. Denis ALIMOV/Roman MOLVISTOV (RUS), 2:47,75
10. Yevhen PRYSYACNYUK/Maryan HYZNER (UKR), 2:59,07

World Cup Ranking (2/6):
Women:
1. Ekatharina LAVRENTJEVA (RUS) 185
2. Renate GIETL (ITA) 160
3. Melanie BATKOWSKI (AUT) 155
4. Renate KASSLATTER (ITA) 130
5. Tina UNTERBERGER (AUT) 96
6. Marlies WAGNER (AUT) 91
7. Julia VETLOVA (RUS) 88
8. Kinga GAWLAS (POL) 75
9. Katrin MLADEK (AUT) 68
10. Nina BUCINEL (SLO) 62
10. Veronika NACHMANN (GER) 62

Doubles:
1. Patrick PIGNETER/Florian CLARA (ITA) 200
2. Andrzej LASZCZAK/Damian WANICZEK (POL) 145
3. Christian SCHATZ/Gerhard MÜHLBACHER (AUT) 140
3. Pawel PORSCHNEV/Ivan LAZAREV (RUS) 140
5. Björn KIERSPEL/Christian WICHAN (GER) 110
6. Martin MAYERHOFER/Siegfried TRUPPE (AUT) 92
6. Aleksandr EGEROV/Petr POPOV (RUS) 92
8. Yevhen PRYSYACNYUK/Maryan HYZNER (UKR) 70
9. Rupert BRÜGGLER/Tobias ANGERER (AUT) 55
10. Philipp ANTHOLZER/Rudi RESCH (ITA) 42