The FIL Luge World Cup on Natural Track in Passeier Valley (ITA) started on Friday with a superior victory for local heroes Patrick Pigneter/Florian Clara.

Show of force by Pigneter/Clara in Passeier. After two sovereign best times in the training sessions on Thursday the Italians stroke in the doubles race on Friday. With the best time in both runs the reigning World Champions celebrated their first win of the season in 1:54.33 minutes on the 870-meter long „Bergkristall“-track. Winterleiten's opening winners Pavel Porshnev/Ivan Lazarev (RUS) finished second a 1.26 seconds back, ahead of their team-mates Aleksandr Egorov/Petr Popov.

Pigneter/Clara and Porshnev/Lazarev are now in the overall lead with 185 points each.

(from left to right) Lazarev/Porshnev, Pigneter/Clara and Egorov/Popov

Patrick Pigneter: “We are dedicating this victory to our late coach Karl Mitterrutzner. We trained with him until a few weeks ago. Our condolence goes to his wife and children ”.
Florian Clara: “We felt very good from the first training session, and the material was great too. We are feeling really comfortable on the Bergkristall-track since our World Cup title in 2009 ”.

On Saturday in Passeier the women's and men's single-seater race is scheduled from 9.30 a.m., followed at 3 p.m. in the afternoon by the pursuit of the double-seater.