Olang/Valdaora (ck) - While for a little while at the beginning of the winter, it looked like last year’s serial winners were struggling a bit, the picture is now pretty much the same as in previous years. Patrick Pigneter (ITA), as a single seater as well as with his double partner Florian Clara (ITA), and Ekatharina Lavrentjeva (RUS) are on their way to win the overall world cup another time. However, the season is not over yet. Three races are left, the next stop this weekend is Olang/Valdaora in Italy. In the men’s event, Thomas Kammerlander (AUT) is the only one of Pigneter’s competitors who still has a realistic chance to keep pace with him. Michael Scheikl (AUT) had a good start into the season, has even been leading the GRM Overall World Cup, but lost valuable points in the last two races. Kammerander has to catch up 30 points only, but even this will be difficult. Patrick Pigneter/Florian Clara and Ekatharina Lavrentjeva have a 60 point advantage already. Pignter/Clara are hunted by Aleksandr Egorov/Petr Popov (RUS), but also the Italian’s eternal rivals Pavel Porshnev/Ivam Lazarev (RUS) are back in top shape. The last races will be a tough competition between those three, but Austria`s Christian Schopf/Andreas Schopf and Christoph Regensburger/Dominik Holzknecht could rain on their parade. Ekatharina Lavrentjeva (RUS) has only been defeated in the parallel race. Tina Unterberger (AUT), presenting herself incredibly strong this winter, seized the moment and took the lead in the world cup for one week. However, her performance will not be enough to seriously contest the Russian’s superiority. But within the last eight years no other athlete ever succeeded in that attempt. In fact, Olang might be the site of another milestone in Lavrentjeva’s career. At one of her favorite tracks she might celebrate her 50th world cup win. Track Info Olang “Panorama”: Start Elevation: 1223,43m Finish Elevation: 1105,75m Difference: 117,68m Length: 1008,5m Average Drop: 11,7% Minimum Drop: 3,6% Maximum Drop: 19,2% Program in Olang/Valdaora: Friday, 24.01.2014 from 10:00am: Training runs for men, women and doubles 1:00pm: Qualification women afterwards Qualification doubles Saturday, 25.01.2014 10:00am: Qualification men 12:00pm: 1st Competition Run GRM World Cup Doubles afterwards Nations Cup Doubles Nations Cup Women 1st Competition Run GRM World Cup Women 2nd Competition Run GRM World Cup Doubles Sunday, 26.01.2014 10:00am: 1st Competition Run GRM World Cup Men afterwards Nations Cup Men 2nd Competition Run GRM World Cup Women 2nd Competition Run GRM WorldCup Men 30 minutes break Team Event