Moscow (ck) "I do not do anything else than the others, just race down the track on my sled", she said with a smile after having won the third World Cup race in a row. Ekatharina Lavrentjeva (RUS) seems to be unbeatable these days. Luge is her full time profession and she trains six times a week throughout the whole year. Still she thinks that she does not train more or better than the others. With her win in Moscow, which was not a home race for her being from Kandalaksha in the Musmansk region, she also took the lead in the overall World Cup. The bid loser of the day was Renate Kasslatter, who messed up her first run and lost race and the RED BULL shirt of the World Cup leader. "I guess this is going my result to cross off. I was even lucky in the first run, I touched the walls several times and had a hard time to avoid a crash." The 5th time in the second run did not really help and she finished eighth. But without her on the winning podium, another Italian took her place: Renate Gietl achieved her best result of the season and finished second. "I am thoroughly satisfied. This season has not been really good for me, but I enjoyed racing on this very track. It is steep with narrow curves, just the way I like it," she said after the race. With her third place Julia Vetlova (RUS) completed the excellent result for the Russian team. They took four out of six possible podium places.

Results of Thursday:

Women:

1. Ekatharina Lavrentjeva (RUS), 38,95 (1), 38,59 (1), 1:17,54
2. Renate Gietl (ITA), 39,01 (2), 38,84 (3), 1:17,85
3. Julia Vetlova (RUS), 39,13 (3), 38,74 (2), 1:17,87
4. Sandra Mariner (AUT), 39,43 (4), 39,88 (4), 1:19,31
5. Christa Gietl (ITA), 39,62 (5), 40,08 (5), 1:19,70
6. Marlies Wagner (AUT), 40,67 (7), 40,17 (7), 1:20,84
7. Ewelina Zurek (POL), 40,14 (6), 41,73 (8), 1:21,87
8. Renate Kasslatter (ITA), 43,95 (10), 40,08 (5), 1:24,03
9. Alona Ascheulova (RUS), 43,11 (9), 41,97 (9), 1:25,08
10. Oxana Elessina (RUS), 42,40 (8), 42,72 (10), 1:25,12