Umhausen (ck) - After one season without winning a World Cup race Austria´s Gernot Schwab is back on top of the podium. And this came as a surprise even for himself: “I would not have dared to put money on me”, he laughed. “Not after my horrible performance in the training run. I have been testing a lot and because of the strange weather I thought I had to come up with a special set up. But I was so wrong. Eventually I used runners I trust 100 percent and I was proved right. I am so happy about this result. Now I quit testing and will fully concentrate on racing.”
Also Patrick Pigneter has not been satisfied with the adjustment of his sled. “I wanted to try some more different settings, but because of the rain last week I could not do so. I tried to make the best out of the situation, but my equipment is not in perfect condition right now.” He will leave Umhausen with a total of 185 points and is in the lead in both World Cup rankings, double and single.
A good performance showed Florian Breitenberger (ITA) once again. After winning last week, he finished third in the second Umhausen race. “I was a bit too much on the brakes in the first run, but then I attacked in the second run and I am glad it was enough for a podium finish.”
Robert Batkowski (AUT), who had been in the lead after the first run, could not repeat this performance and fell back to the fourth rank.

After the first run in the women´s event it looked like the usual suspects would share the podium once again. But when Marlies Wagner (AUT) showed a perfect second run, took the lead and pushed her team mate Melanie Batkowski out of the top three, the result was turned around. Wagner stayed in front until Ekatharina Lavrentjeva (RUS), second after the first run and remarkable 35 hundredths behind Renate Gietl (ITA), put herself at the number one position. Gietl could not beat her and finished second. “I knew that if I wanted to win, I had to be fully concentrated and very aggressive in the second run. I made a lot of tiny mistakes in the first run which in the end resulted in a 35 hundredth margin. But my second run, especially the last turns, very really good”, said the Russian after her 22nd career World Cup win. Renate Gietl was also happy being runner up: “I definitely tried to win and attacked, but when I came out of the braking holes I somehow ended up in a wider radius which cost me the first place. But I am really satisfied with the result.”
Happy with the result was of course Marlies Wagner. Her third place today was her fourth top three finish in the World Cup: “I like the track here and I did better than last week. I think my runners were adjusted better, I was more aggressive and most of all, I did not want to remain on the fourth place. I saw that the time gaps were very close and so I tried to give it all and I am very happy that I succeeded.”

The cancelled races of Moscow have been rescheduled to Krynica in Poland. So Poland will host a double World Cup including the final at the original date of the Russia races February 20th to 24th, announced World Cup Race Director Herbert Wurzer today.
The race which should have taken place in Poland next week will most likely be rescheduled to Italy, but this decision is still pending. A final decision will be made within the next 48 hours.

Results:

Men singles (32):
1. Gernot SCHWAB (AUT), 1:16,22(2), 1:16,27(1), 2:32,49
2. Patrick PIGNETER (ITA), 1:16,60(3), 1:16,34(2), 2:32,94
3. Florian BREITENBERGER (ITA), 1:16,72(5), 1:16.35(3), 2:33,07
4. Robert BATKOWSKI (AUT), 1:16,10(1), 1:17,02(7), 2:33,12
5. Hannes CLARA (ITA), 1:16,82(7), 1:16,51(4), 2:33,33
6. Gerald KAMMERLANDER (AUT), 1:16,90(8), 1:16,51(4), 2:33,41
7. Thomas KAMMERLANDER (AUT), 1:16,76(6), 1:16,76(6), 2:33,52
8. Mathias RAINER (ITA), 1:16,62(4), 1:17,39(12), 2:34,01
9. Martin PSENNER (ITA), 1:17,23(10), 1:17,14(9), 2:34,37
10. Georg MAURER (GER), 1:17,48(11), 1:17,08(8), 2:34,56
11. Florian BATKOWSKI (AUT), 1:17,66(16), 1:17,14(9), 2:34,80
12. Anton BLASBICHLER (ITA), 1:17,57(12), 1:17,34(11), 2:34,91
14. Björn KIERSPEL (GER),2:35,50
15. Christian WICHAN (GER), 2:35,85
16. Marcus GRAUSAM (GER), 2:36,21
17. Kaj JOHNSON (CAN), 2:36,64
20. John GIBSON (CAN), 2:38,62
21. Markus WICHAN (GER), 2:39,28

Women singles (14):

1. Ekatharina LAVRENTJEVA (RUS), 1:17,44(2), 1:17,05(1), 2:34,49
2. Renate GIETL (ITA), 1:17,09(1), 1:17,57(2), 2:34,66
3. Marlies WAGNER (AUT), 1:18,58(4), 1:17,94(3), 2:36,52
4. Melanie BATKOWSKI (AUT), 1:18,49(3), 1:18,24(4), 2:36,73
5. Renate KASSLATTER (ITA), 1:18,71(5), 1:18,63(6), 2:37,34
6. Julia VETLOVA (RUS), 1:18,76(6), 1:18,61(5), 2:37,37
7. Melanie SCHWARZ (ITA), 1:18,82(7), 1:18,88(7), 2:37,70
8. Tina UNTERBERGER (AUT), 1:19,01(9), 1:19,02(8), 2:38,03
9. Kinga GAWLAS (POL), 1:19,07(10), 1:19,04(9), 2:38,11
10. Tamara SCHWARZ (ITA), 1:18,83(8), 1:19,53(10), 2:38,36
11. Michaela MAURER (GER), 2:39,49
12. Katrin Mladek (AUT), 2:40,20

World Cup Rankings (3/6):

Men singles:

1. Patrick PIGNETER (ITA) 270
2. Florian BREITENBERGER (ITA) 230
3. Gernot SCHWAB (AUT) 225
4. Gerald KAMMERLANDER (AUT) 162
5. Robert BATKOWSKI (AUT) 152
6. Anton BLASBICHLER (ITA) 149
7. Martin PSENNER (ITA) 130
8. Florian BATKOWSKI (AUT) 123
9. Hannes CLARA (ITA) 121
10.Thomas KAMMERLANDER 106
11. Georg MAURER (GER) 94
12. Mathias RAINER (ITA) 88
13. Björn KIERSPEL 86
14. Marcus GRAUSAM 80
16. Christian WICHAN 79
18. Kaj JOHNSON 68
23. John GIBSON (CAN) 40
27. Markus WICHAN (GER) 38

Women singles:

1. Ekatharina LAVRENTJEVA (RUS) 285
2. Renate GIETL (ITA) 245
3. Melanie BATKOWSKI (AUT) 215
4. Renate KASSLATTER (ITA) 185
5. Marlies WAGNER (AUT) 161
6. Tina UNTERBERGER (AUT) 138
6. Julia VETLOVA (RUS) 138
8. Kinga GAWLAS (POL) 114
11. Veronika NACHMANN (GER) 92
17. Michaela MAURER(GER) 34


Television coverage on the event is available at www.powermoderator.tv.

Chris Karl
FIL Media Service