Latzfons (ck) - The 20th season in the WÜRZ Energy World Cup started exactly as the 19th season had ended: with a win of Patrick Pigneter/Florian Clara (ITA) in the double’s event. With this win they also took the lead in the eternal winning list of the World Cup. But Patrick Pigneter does not take this win for granted: “We did not know where we are standing. We did not have a lot of opportunities to compare with others prior to the season start. It was a tough competition today and the Russian were a real challenge.” This confirmed also Florian Clara: “During the run I heard the speaker talk about four hundredths, but I had no idea if we were ahead or behind the Russians. We could only give all we had and it is great that it was good enough”. Russia’s Pavel Porshnev/Ivan Lazarev were not fully satisfied with their performance yet: “We had a minor mistake in the upper part in our first run and then in the second run we messed up the second last braking point”, explained Lazarev and knows that he has some reserves for the upcoming races. A similar analysis gave Christian Schatz/Gerhard Mühlbacher (AUT) who finished third: “We could not deliver 100 percent of our potential. The last two percent were missing, you only can perform on a 100 percent level when really everything run perfectly, including the fine tuning of the equipment. But we are proud of our result as we had to fight really hard for it.” In the women’s event only the first run was held today, Saturday. Melanie Batkowski (AUT) had to miss the race due to an illness, Evelin Lanthaler (ITA) surprisingly did not qualify for the World Cup. So the usual fight at the peak was reduced to a duel between Ekatharina Lavrentjeva (RUS) und Renate Gietl (ITA). After the first run the Russian serial winner lies almost one second ahead of the Italian World Champion. The men’s singles had their qualification run and most famous victim of the new test format is the current World Champion Gerald Kammerlander (AUT). He finished 16th and therefore was not among the best six Austrians. He will have to race in the Nation’s Cup. Nation’s Cup: Women as well as doubles finished their Nation’s Cup which is held in one run and is the race for all athlete’s who did not qualify for the World Cup. Evelin Lanthaler (ITA) won that race easily and took her missed chance in the qualification with grace: “I touched the board in the upper part and then I also had a huge mistake in the finish curve.” Her win in the Nation’s Cup is a weak consolation as she will not get any world cup points. According to the new (still being tested) as well as existing rules only four women per nation can collect world cup points in a race, no matter whether they earn them in the World Cup or Nation’s Cup. While in the women’s event Italy with Evelin Lanthaler, Tamara Schwarz and Greta Pinggera took the first three spots, Austria took the whole podium in the doubles event: Christian Regensburger/Dominik Holzknecht won ahead of Rupert Brüggler/Tobias Angerer and DominikAppoloner/Dieter Appoloner. Results World Cup Doubles (10): 1. Patrick PIGNETER/Florian CLARA (ITA), 1:06,82(1), 1:06,83(1), 2:13,65 2. Pavel PORSHNEV/Ivan LAZAREV (RUS), 1:06,92(2), 1:06,89(2), 2:13,81 3. Christian SCHATZ/Gerhard MÜHLBACHER (AUT), 1:07,45(3), 1:07,69(3) 4. Christian SCHOPF/Andreas SCHOPF (AUT), 1:07,71(4), 1:08,98(7), 2:16,69 5. Andrzej LASZCZAK/Damian WANICZEK (POL), 1:08,36(6), 1:08,49(4), 2:16,85 6. Thomas SCHOPF/Andreas SCHÖPF (AUT), 2:17,00 7. Björn KIERSPEL/Christian WICHAN (GER), 2:17,27 Results Nation’s Cup: Women (7): 1. Evelin LANTHALER (ITA) 2. Tamara SCHWARZ (ITA) 3. Great PINGGERA (ITA) Doubles (7): 1. Christian REGENSBURGER/Dominik HOLZKNECHT (AUT) 2. Rupert BRÜGGLER/Tobias ANGERER (AUT) 3. Dominik APPOLONER/Dieter APPOLONER (AUT) World Cup Ranking (1/6): Doubles: 1. Patrick PIGNETER/Florian CLARA (ITA) 100 points 2. Pavel PORSHNEV/Ivan LAZAREV (RUS) 85 3. Christian SCHATZ/Gerhard MÜHLBACHER (AUT) 70 4. Christian SCHOPF/Andreas SCHOPF (AUT) 60 5. Andrzej LASZCZAK/Damian WANICZEK (POL) 55 6. Thomas SCHOPF/Andreas SCHÖPF (AUT) 50 7. Björn KIERSPEL/Christian WICHAN (GER) 46 8. Hannes CLARA/Stefan GRUBER (ITA) 42