Sonja Steinacher, Anton Blasbichler and the Cousins Wolfgang und Andreas Schopf are defenders of their World Cup titles won two years ago in Stein an der Enns, Austria, when tomorrow, Thursday, this year`s World Championships in Natural Track Luge will begin in Zelezniki, Slovenia, with the first training runs. All of them are contenders for places on the podium again. Steinacher won the last World Cup race before the Worlds in Kindberg, Austria, and leads in the overall classification, Blasbichler seems to find back to his best performance, and Schopf/Schopf got Silver at the Junior European Championships last weekend in Kreuth, Germany.
But of course there are some more athletes aspiring to a place in the spotlight. Ekatarina Lavrentjeva from Russia won the title in 2000. Christa Gietl (ITA) celebrated an outstanding World Cup victory in Hüttau, Austria, weeks ago. Elvira Holzkneckt (AUT) began the season badly with a hand injury but improved then from race to race and hopes to be fully fit for the Championships. In the men`s competition, Gerhard Pilz seems ready to win the sixth World Championship Gold in his career. Contenders are his Austrian teammates Robert Batkowski and Gerald Kallan, who do a great job in this winter. Ferdinand Hirzegger, Silver Medalist of 2001, competes with a broken thumb, Gernot Schwab (both AUT) will not be in Slovenia after a training injury suffered a few days ago. In the double seater`s competiton everybody is looking forward to the duel between two east European teams. Andrzej Laszczak und Damian Waniczek (POL) lead in the Overall ranking of the World Cup, but are not as dominant as they were at the beginning of the season. Pawel Porschnev/Ivan Lazarev (RUS) are with two victories and a second place the rookies of the winter. Favorites for podium places are next to Schopf/Schopf also Reinhard Beer/Herbert Kögl and Harald Kleinhofer/Gerhard Mühlbacher (all AUT).
In last season`s World Cup race in Zelezniki Gerhard Pilz won ahead of Roland Kallan (AUT) and Anton Blasbichler; in women`s competition there was an ex aequo of Sonja Steinacher and Sandra Mariner (AUT) ahead of Ekatarina Lavrentjeva, and in the double seaters Laszczak/Waniczek beat Beer/Kögl and Armin Mair/David Mair (ITA/this year not competing).

From the organizing point of view, the track „Drauh – Soriska planina“ is in perfect conditions, as Herbert Wurzer, coordinator for the International Luge Federation (FIL) says. The track is 843 m long, has a 101 m altitude difference (start: 1381 m, finish: 1280 m) and an average gradient of 13 percent.

Like in the World Cup, the double seater competiton will consist of two runs, but unlike the World Cup, the men`s and women`s races will be decided in three instead of two runs.

Time table:
Thursday: Training
Friday: Training, first run women´s competition
Saturday: two runs double seater, two runs women´s competition, first run men´s competition
Sunday: two runs men´s competition

Egon Theiner
FIL Media Service