MOSCOW. After the world cup race of the doubles’ on the day before in Moscow (RUS), on Saturday, January 14th, the women and the men followed.

Thomas Kammerlander from Austria won the men’s event, ahead of the Italians Alex Gruber and Patrick Pigneter. “I, for one, wouldn’t mind if things continued this way,” the Austrian joked after the race on the challenging track in the Russian capital. “We knew what we had to expect, and we adjusted to it. From the beginning, everything went well today, and our strategy proved successful,” said Kammerlander, who was satisfied with the outcome of the race. Gruber wasn’t unhappy either: “After the world cup in Latsch, I wanted to do better here in Moscow, and I succeeded,” said the Italian, who also talked about the special conditions of the track in Moscow: “Here, you must not fear the track, and the equipment has to be perfect. I like the track, it’s short and crisp.” Gruber’s compatriot Pigneter, who had ranked sixth after the qualification, was able to reach the third rank after a good second run. “I’ve been a bit lucky today, but I got the most out of the race,” Pigneter said. He was happy that he had not lost too many points in the overall standings.

At the women’s event, Evelin Lanthaler (ITA) wasn’t to beat on this day, she celebrated her first victory in Russia. “Everything went well in the qualification, I nearly had a perfect run. Therefore, I wasn’t forced to risk too much today,” said Lanthaler, who naturally was happy about her triumph: “I have won the race, and I had the two fastest run times – it couldn’t be better.” In the overall standings of the women, the Italian caught up with Tina Unterberger (AUT), who had ranked second in Moscow. “My final run wasn’t as good as it could have been, but luckily it was enough for the second rank. The track is unpredictable, everything is possible – as you have seen with Daria,” said Unterberger and referred to the Russian Daria Maleeva, who, after a promising third rank in the qualification, crashed in the final run. Greta Pinggera (ITA) stated that she nearly shared the fate of Maleeva: “In the first run, I had to do my best to avoid a crash, therefore my run time wasn’t that good. So today, I had to fight my way back to the top, and I managed to perform well in the second run,” said Pinggera, who ranked third but also thought that she “could have done better” in Moscow.

In the Pursuit Race of the doubles, which had also been held on Saturday, there has been a double victory for the Russians. This time, Aleksandr Egorov/Petr Popov stood on top. “On this track, every mistake can be crucial. Yesterday we made a mistake, but today everything went much better,” said Aleksandr Egorov, who had ranked second along with his partner Petr Popov in the world cup race on the day before. Their compatriots Aleksey Martyanov/Ivan Rodin came in second, Patrick Pigneter/Florian Clara (ITA) came in third. After the sixth rank in the world cup race on the day before, the Italians were eager to regain lost ground in the overall standings, and indeed, they did better in the Pursuit Race.

On Sunday, January 15th, the GRM Group World Cup in Moscow will come to an end after the Pursuit Races of the men and of the women have been executed.  

Results:
http://www.fil-luge.org/en/multimedia/grm-group-luge-world-cup-on-natural-track-1