A tie after the first run already promised a breathtaking second run in the doubles event. The Polish bronze medallists of the 2000 World Championships, Andrzej Laszczak/Damian Waniczek found back on the road of success and won today´s race. “Actually we do not know what we did differently, we are using the same material, have not changed a bit. Probably we have just been on the brakes too much, it is all a matter of within the head,” they said after the race. Reinhard Beer/Herbert Kögl (AUT) had a major mistake early in the second run and it took them all their efforts to catch up as much as they could. “We are happy that we finally could save the second rank. Our big goal of this season is the overall World Cup and we made another step in the right direction.”

In the women´s race the same smiling face like in the first two races of the season was seen on top of the podium. Renate Gietl (ITA) was not beaten in the training runs and she was not beaten in the race. Even though her team mate Toni Blasbichler already had told her that she would win the race being that far ahead of the rest of the field, she did not dare to believe it: “I thought that all the others were holding back themselves in the training and would improve a lot. So I am really happy that I could improve myself and could win this race, too. Still, I do not want to think about the overall World Cup. The pressure has been high enough anyway, as I had to prove that I really could race up to the expectations put in me after my two wins,” said the Italian who celebrated her 23rd birthday four days ago.
Back on old material Ekatharina Lavrentjeva (RUS) finished second. “With a tight race schedule like we are having these days, I do not have the time to find out the right settings for my new sled. So I will race this season on my old one, which suits me perfectly in the curves. The new one is just faster on the straight passages”, she said after the race.
Third became Irene Mitterstieler (ITA), who with a great second run pushed her team mate Renate Kasslatter off the podium, finished third.

In the men´s race it seemed like the logical winner would be Austria´s Gerhard Pilz, who went into the second run with a 37 tenth of second lead. But his hopes were gone after the first curve: “There was something wrong with my runnings, so I had a major mistake in the first curve and this was about it”, he said after the race. So the lucky winner was once more Anton Blasbichler, who had not even been sure to be able to race today. Still suffering from some pain in his leg, injured in his training crash, he was limping up to the start seriously considering to give away his spot for one of the younger athletes. “And as if this would not have been enough I got another slash against my leg at the end of the first run. Then we taped it differently and it worked well for the second run. Still, I would have been happy with a top fife result here, considering the circumstances.” Runner up was once again Florian Breitenberger (ITA), who was a bit surprised about his good result: “Given the training results, I did not expect too much, but now and then you just need a little luck. My blades went perfectly well from the top to the finish.” In the third race of the season Martin Psenner (ITA) finished third for the third time. “I have had a lot of back pain in the last season, I have recovered well now and I think this is the reason for my good results this year”, he said.
But the fastest time in the second run – the same time like Gerhard Pilz in the first run – was achieved by Patrik Pigneter (ITA). Only 11th in the second run he could improve to the fourth rank by his excellent performance in the second run.

Photo by Bernhard Kogler