With some surprises, the new season of natural track luge started on Friday, December 20, 2002 in Völs am Schlern in Italy. Surprise one: the strong Austrian Elvira Holzknecht was not present, because injured the day before. Surprise number two: in the double seater qualification, the World Champions Wolfgang and Andreas Schopf did not made it into the top four who will compete tomorrow, Saturday, for the podium places. And surprise number three: Gerhard Pilz, five times World Champion and twice winner of the overall World Cup, was in a first moment disqualified after a too fast start. Later on, the jury decided that he would make his second qualification run on Saturday before the K.o.-races start, and that he would have to deal with a 1.5 seconds penalty time for his mistake. For that, the men’s results are only provisional.
Fastest in the double seater were the overall World Cup winner of last year. Laszczak/Waniczek from Poland were the only coupe being able to reach the finish before the clock passed the 23-seconds-mark. In women’s training races, the Germans Michaela Maurer und Elisabeth Groll injured. In the top eight for Saturdays competition are four Italians, three Austrians and the Russian World Champion from 2000, Ekaterina Lavrentjeva. In the men’s race was Gerald Kallan the fastest while all six Italians were to find between the places four and nine.
Qualification results:
Double seater:
1. Andrzej Laszczak/Damian Waniczek (POL) 22.80, 22.90 - 45.70
2. Reinhard Beer/Herbert Kögl (AUT) 23.52, 23.54 - 47.06
3. Pawel Porschnev/Ivan Lazarev (RUS) 23.62, 23.68 - 47.30
4. Martin Graf/Harald Laimer (ITA) 23.48, 24.09 - 47.57
not qualified:
5. Wolfgang Schopf/Andreas Schopf (AUT) 47.66
6. Guido Hilgartner/Siegfried Truppe (AUT) 48.11
7. Simone Deme/Michel Squinabol (ITA) 48.64
8. Andrezj Tyrna/Tomasz Kowalczyk (POL) 50.07
9. Björn Kierspel/Hansjörg Mühlbacher (GER) 51.28
did not start: Alex Innerbichler/Harald Innerbichler (ITA)
Women:
1. Barbara Albert (ITA) 22.20, 21.78 - 43.98
2. Sabine Kogler (AUT) 22.54, 22.04 - 44.58
3. Renate Gietl (ITA) 22.56, 22.26 - 44.82
4. Ekaterina Lavrentjeva (RUS) 22.20, 22.67 - 44.87
5. Sonja Steinacher (ITA) 22.46, 22.59 - 45.05
6. Marlies Wagner (AUT) 22.92, 22.40 - 45.32
7. Irene Mitterstieler (ITA) 22.63, 22.81 - 45.44
8. Sandra Mariner (AUT) 23.49, 22.44 - 45.93
not qualified:
9. Julia Vetlova (RUS) 45.95
10. Ewelina Zurek (POL) 46.41
11. Magdalena Zawada (POL) 47.37
12. Anna Braun (GER) 47.68
13. Karolina Waniczek (POL) 48.13
14. Mateja Kralj (SLO) 49.61
15. Sylwia Zarzecka (POL) 50.85
did not start: Michaela Maurer, Elisabeth Groll (beide GER)
Men, provisional (top 16 to K.o.-races):
1. Gerald Kallan (AUT) 21.07, 21.53 - 42.60
2. Ferdinand Hirzegger (AUT) 21.71, 21.33 - 43.04
3. Robert Batkowski (AUT) 21.90, 21.15 - 43.05
4. Anton Blasbichler (ITA) 21.43, 21.63 - 43.06
5. Martin Psenner (ITA) 21.24, 21.84 - 43.08
6. Andreas Castiglioni (ITA) 21.90, 21.23 - 43.13
7. Florian Breitenberger (ITA) 21.66, 21.52 - 43.18
8. Rudi Resch (ITA) 22.16, 21.31 - 43.47
9. Thomas Damian (ITA) 21.73, 21.79 - 43.52
10. Georg Maurer (GER) 21.44, 22.11 - 43.55
11. Gerald Kammerlander (AUT) 21.81, 21,81 - 43.62
12. Roland Kallan (AUT) 21.64, 22.09 - 43.73
13. Marcus Grausam (GER) 22.15, 22.07 - 44.22
14. Borut Fejfar (SLO) 22.54, 22.15 - 44.69
15. Denis Alimov (RUS) 22.09, 23.08 - 45.17
16. Ervin Marn (SLO) 22.94, 22.31 - 45.25
not qualified:
17. Björn Kierspel (GER) 45.27
18. Borut Kralj (SLO) 45.69
19. Ziga Pagon (SLO) 45.86
20. Corey Pusey (CAN) 45.89
21. John Gibson (CAN) 46.12
22. Gaspar Benedik (SLO) 46.70
23. Christian Wichan (GER) 46.77
24. Hansjörg Mühlbacher (GER) 46.84
25. Jasmin Prnjavorac (BIH) 48.36
26. Kenan Strojil (BIH) 51.75
still competing: Gerhard Pilz (AUT) 21.12
did not finish: Rudolf Schwarz (GER)
did not finish: Damian Waniczek, Andrzej Laszczak (both POL)
FIL-Media Service
Egon Theiner
Contact: +43-664-4152730
