In excellent shape and with a new sled the Russian World Champion Ekatharina Lavrentjeva demonstrated her class and let no doubt that she will be the one to beat in the current season. “I have been training a lot during the winter months. My sled was two years old, so I had to get and new one and I seem to handle it very well”, she said after having won the race. “Even though I only had two training runs here on this track, but I thing I am in really good shape this winter.” The only one who could challenge her was Christa Gietl from Italy. She achieved the fasted time in the second run, but non the less had to settle for the second place.

The third spot on the podium was shared between last year´s overall World Cup winner Renate Gietl (ITA) and the young Austrian team World Champion Melanie Batkowski. She, at the age of 16, gave another proof of her great talent. Way behind after the first few curves (twelfth in the first run, ninth in the second), she still raced on the podium. “I have always liked this track and the middle and lower part are just the way I like it and it went really well. I do not like the upper part very much and I also did not have the best tuning of the sled for this kind of curves,” she said and the upcoming season will show what she can do in a track she likes from start to finish.

The men´s event seemed to be an easy task for Italy´s team. Four Italians were in the lead after the first run. Ranked sixth in the first run was Austria´s Gerald Kammerlander and when he took the lead it was not a reason to worry. Not yet. One Italian after the other crossed the finish line but Kammerlander, whose best World Cup result so far had been a fourth place, was still in the lead. Now it was up to Patrick Pigneter to fulfil the Italian hopes. His time margin from the first run was more than a second, but he took full risk and won the race with the fastest times in both runs. “I knew that Kammerlander was still leading and that my team mates had not managed to beat him, but I was not nervous, I just gave it all. I nearly had a crash in the run, but after all it had a happy end”, said Pigneter, who last year had to share the top spot on the podium with team mate Anton Blasbichler. However, Kammerlander, who achieved his first World Cup podium result, did not even have a good feeling: “I never would have though that it is possible to gain four places in the second run, especially not after my run. But then again, on this very track if you take a high risk you easily lose the ideal spur and just don´t feel good but you still can be very fast. And I certainly took a high risk today.” Third became Florian Breitenberger, another Italian.

The World Cup will be continued in January with races in Kindberg (AUT) and Garmisch-Partenkirchen (GER).

Final Results Women:

1. Ekatharina LAVRENTJEVA (RUS), 1:25,59(1), 1:25,40(2), 2:50,99
2. Christa GIETL (ITA), 1:25,73(2), 1:25,30(1), 2:51,03
3. Renate GIETL (ITA), 1:26,59 (3), 1:26,73(6), 2:53,32
3. Melanie BATKOWSKI (AUT), 1:26,78(4), 1:26,54(3), 2:53,32
5. Marlies WAGNER (AUT), 1:26,78(4), 1:27,20(8), 2:53,98
6. Julia VETLOVA (RUS), 1:27,37(7), 1:26,67(4), 2:54,04
7. Karolina WANICZEK (POL), 1:26,97(6), 1:27,18(7), 2:54,15
8. Tamara SCHWARZ (ITA), 1:27,89(9), 1:26,67(4), 2:54,56
9. Michaela MAURER (GER), 1:28,34(12), 1:28,06(9), 2:56,40
9. Sandra MARINER (AUT), 1:28,24(11), 1:28,16(11), 2:56,40
11. Tina UNTERBERGER (AUT), 1:28,05(10), 1:28,95(12), 2:57,00
12. Kinga GAWLAS (POL), 1:28,99(13), 1:28,10(10), 2:57,09

Final Results Men:

1. Patrick PIGNETER (ITA), 1:23,24(1), 1:23,67(1), 2:46,91
2. Gerald KAMMERLANDER (AUT), 1:24,38(6), 1:24,03(2), 2:48,41
3. Florian BREITENBERGER (ITA), 1:24,32(4), 1:24,19(3), 2:48,51
4. Anton BLASBICHLER (ITA), 1:24,09(3), 1:24,46(5), 2:48,55
4. Martin PSENNER (ITA), 1:23,98(2), 1:24,57(6), 2:48,55
6. Gernot SCHWAB (AUT), 1:24,33(5), 1:24,45(4), 2:48,78
7. Daniel QUITTA (ITA), 1:24,90(9), 1:24,63(7), 2:49,53
8. Mathias RAINER (ITA), 1:24,83(8), 1:24,89(8), 2:49,72
9. Robert BATKOWSKI (AUT), 1:25,47(11), 1:25,00(9), 2:50,47
10. Florian BATKOWSKI (AUT), 1:25,48(12), 1:25,36(10), 2:50,84
11. Georg MAURER (GER), 1:25,16(10), 1:26,13(12), 2:51,29
12. Borut KRALJ (SLO), 1:25,86(13), 1:26,31(13), 2:51,29

World Cup Standings (1/6):

Women:

1. Ekatharina LAVRENTJEVA (RUS): 100
2. Christa GIETL (ITA): 85
3. Renate GIETL (ITA) : 70
3. Melanie BATKOWSKI (AUT): 70
5. Marlies WAGNER (AUT): 55
6. Julia VETLOVA (RUS): 50
7. Karolina WANICZEK (POL): 46
8. Tamara SCHWARZ (ITA): 42
9. Michaela MAURER (GER): 39
9. Sandra MARINER (AUT): 39
11. Tina UNTERBERGER (AUT): 34
12. Kinga GAWLAS (POL): 32

Men:

1. Patrick PIGNETER (ITA): 100
2. Gerald KAMMERLANDER (AUT): 85
3. Florian BREITENBERGER (ITA): 70
4. Anton BLASBICHLER (ITA): 60
4. Martin PSENNER (ITA): 60
6. Gernot SCHWAB (AUT): 50
7. Daniel QUITTA (ITA): 46
8. Mathias RAINER (ITA): 42
9. Robert BATKOWSKI (AUT): 39
10. Florian BATKOWSKI (AUT): 36
11. Georg MAURER (GER)
12. Borut KRALJ (SLO)

Doubleseaters:

1. Andrzej LASZCZAK/Damian WANICZEK (POL): 100
2. Reinhard BEER/Herbert KÖGL (AUT): 85
3. Pawel PORSCHNEV/Ivan LAZAREV (RUS): 70
4. Christian SCHATZ/Gerhard MÜHLBACHER (AUT): 60
5. Aleksandr EGEROV/Petr POPOV (RUS): 55
6. Denis ALIMOV/Roman MOLISTOV (RUS): 50
7. Günther INNERBICHLER/Alex INNERBICHLER (ITA): 46
8. Thomas Weiss/Andreas LEITNER (ITA): 42