Triesenberg (ck) After a two weeks break (in which the Junior World Championships and the European Championships were held) the RED BULL World Cup will be continued the coming weekend. Even though some decisions seem to be pretty clear already, two exciting events can be awaited. The parallel event has got its own rules anyway, so new faces might be seen on the podium.
In the men´s contest so far Anton Blasbichler (ITA) has been the man to beat. Each race for itself has been a breathtaking, tight decision, but finally Anton Blasbichler has been the winner four times in as many races. So the overall World Cup should be his, but the fight for the places behind him is still open. Gernot Schwab (AUT) stands at 290 points, followed by Gerald Kallan (AUT/247) and Robert Batkowski (AUT/202).
In the women´s competition the picture is a similar one, just that Renate Kasslatter (ITA) – 34 points behind - still does have a chance to catch Ekatharina Lavrentjeva (RUS). “It will be very difficult to beat Ekatharina”, Kasslatter said, “I would need two victories in the two remaining races. But the next one will be a parallel event which I am really looking forward to.”
The most situation is given in the double seater´s event: with three different winners in four races nothing is decided yet. So far the new European Championships Porschnev/Lazarev are also leading in the Overall World cup, but only 35 behind them the Austrian cousins Wolfgang and Andreas Schopf are waiting for their chances.
Only five out of six results will be counted in the final ranking, so the last two races won´t lack of suspension. In the parallel event a qualification run will decide about the pairs which have to race against each other. The losers of the head-to-head-runs will be ranked according to their qualification ranking.

The schedule for the coming event:

Friday, Feb 13th:
2pm: Start of training runs
6pm: Qualification runs for men, women and doubles
8:30pm: Finals runs doubles

Saturday, Feb 14th:
6pm: Final runs women (top8) and men (top16)
8pm: Prize Giving Ceremony

Track Info:
Start altitude: 1523 meters above sea level
Finish altitude: 1484m
Difference of altitude: 38,65m
Track length: 300m
Average descent: 13%