Pigneter/Clara celebrate Doubles Overall World Cup victory with win at Deutschnofen

Deutschnofen (PMA) - Patrick Pigneter and Florian Clara from Italy win the Overall Luge World Cup on Natural Track at the doubles competition at the penultimate round at Deutschnofen in Italy. They secure the title with their fifth World Cup victory this season. It is also their fourth win at Deutschnofen, after 2009, 2012 and 2015. At the track Pfösl-Riep they are still unbeaten.

"Deutschnofen is one of my favourite tracks and it feels like home. Our next big target is the gold medal the European Championships at Passeier. We are the big favourites, but one careless moment and a crash can end the dreams", explains Pigneter. His doubles partner Florian Clara adds: "Winning the Overall World Cup is the recognition for constantly working hard before and during the season. We had no severe injuries in the last seasons, so there was a little bit of luck also a part."

Second and third place went to Austria and Christoph Regensburger/Dominik Holzknecht and Rupert Brüggler/Tobias Angerer. Russian double Pavel Porshnev/Ivan Lazarev finished fourth ahead of their team-mates Aleksandr Egorov and Petr Popov. Egorov/Popov were second after the qualification run, but they made a big mistake in the last section of the track. Young Italian duo Armin Folie and Elias Gruber took the sixth place.