The fifth round of the FIL Luge World Cup on Natural Track has started on the Pfösl Riep-Track in Nova Ponente / Deutschnofen (ITA). On the schedule for Saturday morning was also the first run of the singles men and women.

The spectacular and extremely challenging Pfösl Riep-Track in Nova Ponente / Deutschnofen for the fist time was perpaired with a brand new ice-machine this year, making the high-speed track even smoother and faster. The leaders in the doubles, Patrick Pigneter / Florian Clara (ITA), in the first run set a new track record (57.26 seconds), which is 0.25 seconds faster than the old track record of 57.51 seconds by Pavel Porshnev / Ivan Lazarev (RUS) in 2017. In the second run Pigneter / Clara set the fastest time again, but they could not improve their track record. The Russians Porshnev / Lazarev finished second (+ 1.03 seconds), third place for the World Champions and last year's winner Rupert Brüggler / Tobias Angerer (AUT). "The race did not start in a good way for us. During the preparation we noticed that on our  starter belt the second screw was missing. We fixed it with a „last minute“-repair using tape.  The run was really fast because of the new ice“, said Florian Clara after the win.

Pigneter leads in single
In the first run of the men’s single there is also a new track record, a total number of three athletes remained below the record of 54.20 seconds by Alex Gruber (ITA) from the previous year. After a slow start-section Patrick Pigneter (ITA) gained much speed from the second intermediate time on and is leading with the new track record of 53.68 seconds. Thomas Kammerlander (AUT) follows in second place with a mini-gap of 0.02 seconds, last year's winner Alex Gruber (+0.13 seconds) takes third place. "It's like in the old days. Win in the doubles and lead in the single-seater! But nothing is decided yet, once again everything is extremely close. The final on Sunday will be extremely exciting“, said the half-time leader Patrick Pigneter.

Evelin Lanthaler on a new level
It was a demonstration of strenght by World Cup leader Evelin Lanthaler (ITA). The 4 times winner of this season is in the lead after the first run, ahead of Russian Ekaterina Lavrenteva (+0.98 seconds) and last year's winner Greta Pinggera (ITA). Lanthaler finished the first run with the time of 54.10 seconds, this would virtually mean 4th place in the men’s! Lanthaler commented: "That was one of the most perfect runs of my career. I was never fourth in the virtual men's result. Anyway, there will be no strategic performance in the second run on Sunday. On this track you always have to be fully concentrated, otherwise it will quickly become dangerous here. "

Neurauter and Unterholzner win Nations Cup
A home win for Italy in the Nations Cup. Christa Unterholzner (ITA) won with  a time of 56.36 seconds, her team-mate Alexandra Pfattner (+0.49 seconds) is second, followed by Svitlana Humeniuk from Moldova in 3rd place. In men’s single Bernd Neurauter (AUT) set a time of 55.68 seconds and took the win, local hero Matthias Troger (+0.03) follows in second position, in third place the Russian Aleksei Martianov (+0.12).

Final on Sunday
The finals are scheduled for Sunday: At 10.30am the women start the second run, the men follows at 11.10am on the Pfösl Riep-Track, which is called the „Streif“ at the FIL Luge World Cup on Natural Track because of top speeds of about 80 km/h and challenging turns. The Team-Event is scheduled for 1pm.