Novouralsk (ck) - With one hundredth of a second advantage the brothers Christian und Andreas Schopf (AUT) won the new season’s first race. “This time we had the luck on our side” Christian Schopf said after the race. But the luck was based on hard work: “All our equipment preparations worked perfectly well here right from the beginning, so we did not have to change anything today”, explained Christian Schopf. Even though the Austrians took the lead after the first run already, it was a tough race until the very end. “At the beginning of the season you still lack the competition routine. We got pretty well into it, but we were a bit nervous before the final run”, said Christian. For the first time ever the two managed to win a season opening race and so will start the New Year as world cup leaders. “We will work a lot during the Holidays. At Seiser Alm with the parallel race we will find totally different conditions. We have to get the equipment ready for that”, says Andreas Schopf. With their win they prevented a Russian success as they upset Aleksandr Egorv/Petr Popov by one hundredth of a second. The Russians could keep their good form from last year and now outperformed the experienced double Pavel Porshnev/Ivan Lazarev in the Russian internal competition. Witness of this change of dominance in the doubles’ event was Natalia Gart, President of the Russian Luge Federation as well as representative of the world cup sponsor GRM Group. She had come all the way from Moscow to watch the race. With the fastest run time in the second leg, Patrick Pigneter/Florian Clara (ITA) managed to improve their ranking from five to three and claimed the last spot on the podium. “I am satisfied and not disappointed at all”, said Pigneter. “I made a mistake in the first run. I was distracted for a moment and then we crashed into the boards, so I am happy that nothing happened.” Both Nation’s Cup races were won by Russia: Svetlana Zharavina won the women’s race and Pavel Silin/Iwan Rodin took the first spot in the double’s race. In the women’s GRM World Cup the first run was held today, Saturday. Unsurprisingly Ekatharina Lavrentjeva is ranked first, with a margin of 1,63 seconds already. Tina Unterberger (AUT) surprised with her second place in yesterday’s “Zavada Cup” and could repeat her performance in the World Cup. She is currently third, only 0,06 seconds behind Evelin Lanthaler (ITA). In the men’s event Michael Scheikl (AUT) won the qualification race as well as the “Zavada Cup” (a local race honoring the contructor of the race track in Novouralsk). Scheikl and Thomas Kammerlander have been seeded for the World Cup, Thomas Schopf and Florian Glatzl are Austria`s additionally qualified participants. The Italian team will consist of Patrick Pigneter, Alex Gruber and Florian Clara. Program for Sunday, 22.12.2013: 10:30am: 1st Competition Run GRM World Cup Men 30 Minutes Break: Team Event Women‘s Intermediate Ranking after one run: 1. Ekatharina LAVRENTJEVA (RUS), 1:00,17 2. Evelin LANTHALER (ITA), 1:01,80 3. Tina UNTERBERGER (AUT), 1:01,86 4. Liudmila AKSENENKO (RUS), 1:02,06 5. Darija MALEJEVA (RUS), 1:02,90 6. Christina GÖTSCHL (AUT), 1:03,88 7. Petra DRAGICEVIC (SLO), 1:04,34 8. Michaela NIEMETZ (GER), 1:06,18 9. Asuman BAYRAK (TUR), 1:08,64 10. Svitlana KRAVCHUK (UKR), 1:09,69 Final Ranking Doubles: 1. Christian SCHOPF/Andreas SCHOPF (AUT), 1:03,50(1), 1:03,83(3), 2:07,33 2. Aleksandr EGOROV/Petr POPOV (RUS), 1:03, 57(2), 1:03,77(2), 2:07,34 3. Patrick PIGNETER/Florian CLARA (ITA), 1:06,30(5), 1:03,44(1), 2:09,74 4. Rupert BRÜGGLER/Tobias ANGERER (AUT), 1:04,67(3), 1:05,46(5), 2:10,13 5. Pavel PORSHNEV/Ivan LAZAREV (RUS), 2:10,14 6. Matic NEMC/Petra DRAGICEVIC (SLO), 2:19,10 World Cup Ranking Doubles (1/7): 1. Christian SCHOPF/Andreas SCHOPF (AUT) 100 points 2. Aleksandr EGOROV/Petr POPOV (RUS) 85 3. Patrick PIGNETER/Florian CLARA (ITA) 70 4. Rupert BRÜGGLER/Tobias ANGERER (AUT) 60 5. Pavel PORSHNEV/Ivan LAZAREV (RUS) 55 6. Matic NEMC/Petra DRAGICEVIC (SLO) 50 7. Bogdan MOROSAN/Gabriel CANDREA (ROU) 46 8. Muhammet DELLALBASI/Muhammet OZCAN (TUR) ..42