Umhausen (ck) - Once again Patrick Pigneter/Florian Clara (ITA) knew how to keep the race thrilling until the very last second. After the first run they were ranked second, but managed to push their own limits and claim back the European Champion title as well as another world cup win. “It really looks like I need that special kick to motivate myself to give everything in the second run”, said Pigneter and admitted: “I did not expect the Russians that strong, but that’s as it should be, we needed two perfect runs to win this race.” Perfect runs was the defeated European Champions, Pavel Porshnev/Ivan Lazarev (RUS) did not have: “Our second run was not ideal”, said Ivan Lazarev. “We are in good shape, the season started well, a second place is good, but not great.” Equally ambitious are their Russian team mates Aleksandr Egorov/Petr Popov, who had been struggling with equipment problems for a long time but now found their perfect sled: “A third place is good, but we wanted more.” The competition within the Russian team is in full flow. “Next to Pigneter/Clara our own team mates were our strongest opponents”, said Egorov. “And this is how it should be, there is also pressure coming from the juniors and they all become better”, added Andrej Knyr, the successful Russian coach. Christian Schopf/Andreas Schopf (AUT) had to settle for the unwanted fourth rank regarding the European Championships, but they are seeing the broader picture and think about world cup points: “We were far away from the first two places, but the gap to the medal was small. Most important is, though, that we earned valuable world cup points”, said Andreas Schopf. And Christian explained: “These are not our favorite conditions. We are fast when it is cold, in warm weather we always struggle a bit with our equipment. But we have some ideas for tomorrow. The goal is a medal in the tea event.” In the doubles‘ Nations Cup the places one and two were taken by Russia. Stanislav Kovshik/Ilya Tarasov won ahead of Pavel Silin/Iwan Rodin. Roman Los/Svitlana Kravchuk (UKR) finished third. Final Results European Championships Doubles: 1. Patrick PIGNETER/Florian CLARA (ITA) 2. Pavel PORSHNEV/Ivan LAZAREV (RUS) 3. Aleksandr EGOROV/Petr POPOV (RUS) Final Results GRM Weltcup Doubles: 1. Patrick PIGNETER/Florian CLARA (ITA), 1:18,38(2), 1:18,03(1), 2:36,41 2. Pavel PORSHNEV/Ivan LAZAREV (RUS), 1:18,22(1), 1:18,26(2), 2:35,50 3. Aleksandr EGOROV/Petr POPOV (RUS), 1:19,77(3), 1:19,19(3), 2:38,96 4. Christian SCHOPF/Andreas SCHOPF (AUT), 1:19,92(4), 1:19,49(4), 2:39,41 5. Christoph REGENSBURGER/Dominik HOLZKNECHT (AUT), 1:20,35(5), 1:20,25(6), 2:40,60 6. Andrzej LASZCZAK/Damian WANICZEK (POL), 1:20,51(6), 1:20,15(5), 2:40,66 7. Christoph KNAUDER/Thomas KNAUDER (AUT), 1:21,87(7), 1:22,16(7), 2:44,03 8. Christian WICHAN/Oliver SCHILLER (GER), 1:23,15(8); 1:22,52(8), 2:45,67 GRM World Cup Ranking Doubles (4/7): 1. Patrick PIGNETER/Florian CLARA (ITA) 370 2. Aleksandr EGOROV/Petr POPOV (RUS) 310 3. Pavel PORSHNEV/Ivan LAZAREV (RUS) 285 4. Christian SCHOPF/Andreas SCHOPF (AUT) 270 5. Christoph REGENSBURGER/Dominik HOLZKNECHT (AUT)213