Garmisch-Partenkirchen (ck) And once again the luge family saw two Russian victories. Not snow, not changing conditions or limited vision due to heavy snowfall could stop the Russians from winning. Ekatharina Lavrenjeva as well as the double Pawel Porschnev/Ivan Lazarev did not let any doubt that for the time being they are the ones to beat. Runner up and still World Cup leader Renate Kasslatter (ITA) said: "It does not really matter whether you become second being one hundredth behind or one second. But it is impressive what Ekatharina is doing these days. In each run she beats the rest of the field by half a second." Kasslatter does not have an idea where she wins the time: "Of course it might be the sled, but you don´t get the chance for a closer look to check her sled thoroughly", she said with a smile.
The rookie of the day was another Italian: Sandra Lanthaler. In her first World Cup race ever she finished third. And puts the Italian coach Karl Damian into deep trouble: "Now we have five or six girls who each can win a World Cup race. We have to use a rotation system as only four are allowed in the World Cup." Only three (Kasslatter and the Gietl sisters) will do the trip to Russia next week. "We can´t afford to bring a complete team due to budget reasons," Damian explains.

The doubleseater´s event saw new faces one the podium next to the familiar Russian ones. Andreas and Wolfgang Schopf (AUT) finished second and celebrated their best World Cup result in a long time. Even though they have been reigning World Champions for the past three years they had been missing a good result in the World Cup for a long time. "It seems as if we could handle the conditions today pretty well," they said after the race. Improvements of material as well as better communication between the two of them (last year one of them had to do his military service, this year the other one, so they had a hard time to coordinate the training) had resulted in today´s good performance. Their best career result showed the brothers Günther and Alex Innerbichler (ITA). "We have less training now than about a year ago, but the quality of training has improved", they said, happy about their first World Cup podium ever.

Results of Saturday:

Doubles (12):

1. Pawel Porschnev/Ivan Lazarev (RUS), 1:20,17 (1), 1:20,17 (1), 2:40,44
2. Wolfgang Schopf/Andreas Schopf (AUT), 1:20,41 (2), 1:20,64 (3), 2:41,05
3. Günther Innerbichler/Alex Innerbichler (ITA), 1:20,41 (2), 1:20,83 (4), 2:41,24
4. Armin Maier/Johannes Hofer (ITA), 1:21,20 (5), 1:20,39 (2), 2:41,59
5. Reinhard Beer/Herbert Kögl (AUT), 1:20,98 (4), 1:21,45 (6), 2:42,43
6. Andrzej Laszczak/Damian Waniczek (POL), 1:21,47 (6), 1:21,89 (7), 2:43,36
7. Harald Kleinhofer/Gerhard Mühlbacher (AUT), 1:22,14 (8), 1:21,43 (5), 2:43,57
8. Martin Graf/Harald Laimer (ITA), 1:21,60 (7), 1:22,24 (8), 2:43,84
9. Blörn Kierspel/Hansjörg Mühlbacher (GER), 1:25,44 (9), 1:24,52 (9), 2:49,96
10. Mario Gortnar/Jure Potocnik (SLO), 1:27,92 (10), 1:27,74 (10),


Women (20):

1. Ekatharina Lavrentjeva (RUS), 1:16,09 (1), 1:15,86 (1), 2:31,95
2. Renate Kasslatter (ITA), 1:16,60 (2), 1:16,24 (2), 2:32,84
3. Sandra Lanthaler (ITA), 1:16,62 (3), 1:16,33 (3), 2:32,95
4. Renate Gietl (ITA), 1:17,10 (5), 1:16,43 (4), 2:33,53
5. Sandra Mariner (AUT), 1:17,06 (4), 1:16,64 (5), 2:33,70
6. Marlies Wagner (AUT), 1:17,43 (7), 1:17,44 (6), 2:34,87
7. Julia Vetlova (RUS), 1:17,50 (8), 1:17,47 (7), 2:34,97
8. Christa Gietl (ITA), 1:17,29 (6), 1:17,83 (9), 2:35,12
9. Melanie Batkowski (AUT), 1:17,68 (9), 1:17,86 (10), 2:35,54
10. Tina Unterberger (AUT), 1:18,02 (10), 1:18,14 (12), 2:36,16
11. Ewelina Zurek (POL), 1:18,74 (12), 1:17,62 (8), 2:36,36
12. Michaela Maurer (GER), 1:18,72 (11), 1:18,90 (13), 2:37,62
15. Melissa Jones (CAN), 1:21,43 (15), 1:21,22 (16), 2:42,65


World Cup Standings (3/6):

Doubles:

1. Pawel Porschnev/Ivan Lazarev (RUS) 260 points
2. Wolfgang Schopf/Andreas Schopf (AUT) 210
3. Harald Kleinhofer/Gerhard Mühlbacher (AUT) 201
4. Andrzej Laszczak/Damian Waniczek (POL) 190
5. Armin Mair/Johannes Hofer (ITA) 170
6. Reinhard Beer/Herbert Kögl (AUT) 155
7. Björn Kierspel/Hansjörg Mühlbacher (GER) 125
8. Günther Innerbichler/Alex Innerbichler (ITA) 116


Women:
1. Renate Kasslatter (ITA) 270
2. Ekatharina Lavrentjeva (RUS) 246
3. Christa Gietl (ITA) 197
4. Marlies Wagner (AUT) 139
5. Sandra Mariner (AUT) 125
6. Renate Gietl (ITA) 120
6. Michael Maurer (GER) 120
8. Irene Mitterstieler (ITA) 115
9. Julia Vetlova (RUS) 101
10. Ursina Schneider (SUI) 94
11. Ewelina Zurek (POL) 73
12. Sandra Lanthaler (ITA) 70
13. Tina Unterberger (AUT) 66
14. Melissa Jones (CAN) 65