Lungiarü - At their only second start in the World Cup Pigneter/Clara (ITA) claimed the top spot on the podium. “I had a good feeling in the training already”, said Pigneter, “but I did not dare to hope that we could repeat this performance in the competition.” The former school mates (Pigneter is one year older and graduated last year) started racing together when they prepared for last year´s Junior World Championships in Garmisch, Germany, where they won the gold medal. “Since then we have had maybe 25 runs together”, said Pigneter. For Florian Clara it was not only his first career World Cup win, it was also a special one because Lungiarü is his hometown. “I did not feel any additional pressure, I was very excited and enjoyed competing here at home”, said the 18-year-old. “Of course I also take advantage of the excellent form Patrick has this season.”
The Russians Pawel Porschnev/Ivan Lazarev were beaten by the Italian newcomers, but were still satisfied. “Today the race was not so good, but we mad some additional points for the overall World Cup, so altogether it is a good day for us,” said Lazarev. And: “Pigneter/Clara came not out of the blue, they are Junior World Champions and we also know that here in Lungiaru the Italians are always very strong.”
The result proved him right, as also the third place was taken by Italians: Johannes Hofer/Martin Psenner are getting better from race to race, but still want to take it easy: “Our goal for this season was to get established in the top field and to qualify for the World Championships in Canada. That we made the podium in our second race together does not mean that we have reached anything. We will just go on working step by step”, said Hofer. Martin Psenner seems to have needed the double challenge to become a regular on the podium. “I knew that it would be a tough season competing in singles and doubles. But I have prepared well for this, probably most efficiently in my entire career. Of course the experience helps to optimize training and also to adjust to difficult conditions like we find this winter because of the warm weather,” said the 30-year old.
The competition will be continued tomorrow, Sunday, with the singleseater races starting at 10.30am.
Results Doubles (17):
1. Patrick PIGNETER/Florian CLARA (ITA), 1:30,68(1), 1:31,38(1), 3:02,06
2. Pawel PORSCHNEV/Ivan LAZAREV (RUS), 1:31,45(2), 1:31,66(2), 3:03,11
3. Martin PSENNER/Johannes HOFER (ITA), 1:31,90(4), 1:31,85(3), 3:03,75
4. Denis ALIMOV/Roman MOLVISTOV (RUS), 1:31,84(3), 1:1:32,56(5), 3:04,40
5. Aleksandr EGEROV/Petr POPOV (RUS), 1:32,87(8), 1:32,27(4), 3:05,14
6. Reinhard BEER/Herbert KÖGL (AUT), 1:32,25(6), 1:32,99(6), 3:05,24
6. Andrzej LASZCZAK/Damian WANICZEK (POL), 1:32,16(5), 1:33,08(7), 3:05,24
8. Thomas WEISS/Andreas LEITER (ITA), 1:32,26(7), 1:33,57(9), 3:05,83
9. Christian SCHATZ/Gerhard MÜHLBACHER (AUT), 1:32,96(10), 1:33,19(8), 3:06,15
10. Christian SCHOPF/Andreas SCHOPF (AUT), 1:32,95(9), 1:33,72(10), 3:06,67
11. Björn KIERSPEL/Christian WICHAN (GER), 3:07,88
12. Borut KRALJ/Ziga PAGON (SLO), 3:09,16
World Cup Ranking (3/6):
1. Pawel PORSCHNEV/Ivan LAZAREV (RUS) 255
2. Reinhard BEER/Herbert KÖGL (AUT) 205
3. Aleksandr EGEROV/Petr POPOV (RUS) 201
4. Christian SCHATZ/Gerhard MÜHLBACHER (AUT) 179
5. Denis ALIMOV/Roman MOLVISTOV (RUS) 160
6. Andrzej LASZCZAK/Damian WANICZEK (POL) 151
7. Thomas WEISS/Andreas LEITER (ITA) 141
8. Martin PSENNER/Johannes HOFER (ITA) 130
9. Borut KRALJ/Ziga PAGON (SLO) 105
10. Patrick PIGNETER/Florian CLARA (ITA) 100
11. Martin MAYERHOFER/Siegfried TRUPPE (AUT) 84
12. Björn KIERSPEL/Christian WICHAN (GER) 70
Chris Karl
FIL Media Service
