Aurach (ck) Aurach near Kitzbühel is ready to host the final Show-Down of the RED BULL World Cup winter. Even though some decisions have been made already, it is going to be an exciting weekend: Anton Blasbichler (ITA) can race for his fifth victory in this season and does not have to worry about the Overall World Cup any more: he has won it already. But the fight for the places behind him is still open: Gernot Schwab, Gerald Kallan and Robert Batkowski (all AUT) still have their chances. But also Andreas Castiglioni (ITA) as well as Marcus Grausam (GER) might play a role when the third place is concerned. Especially Grausam, who celebrated his first World Cup victory one week ago will come to Aurach highly motivated and he already announced that Aurach is also a track that he likes.

In the women´s event Ekatharina Lavrentjeva (RUS) can lose the Overall World Cup only mathematically. She only needs 9 points to win. On the other hand, if she makes less than these 9 points, Renate Kasslatter (ITA) still needs to win the race to beat the Russian. Behind those two Sandra Mariner (AUT/285), Christa (284) and Renate (265) Gietl (both ITA) are only 20 points apart and will have a tough race for the third overall place.

A completely open race can be seen in the double setaers event: with four different winners in five races the Russians Porschnev/Lazarev are leading in the World Cup (415 points), but Schopf/Schopf (AUT) are only 20 points behind and have shown good performances lately. Due to the cross-off results also the Polish double Laszczak/Waniczek has got a minor chance: the can collect the full amount of points in Aurach as they had a zero-point result in Russia. Ranked four and five are Mair/Hofer (ITA) and beer/Kögl (AUT), both with no points to lose, so they, too, have a chance to race for the overall bronze medal.
Today, Thursday, the training runs will be started in Aurach. Friday at 6pm the first competition runs will be held. Saturdays schedule starts at 5pm with the finals in all three disciplines from 8pm. These decisions will be shown live on TW1 (an ORF channel).

Facts of the track:
Length: 1080 meters
Altitude of start: 948 meters above sea level
Altitude of finish: 791 meters
Difference in altitude: 157 meters
Average descent: 14,7%