Pigneter/Clara (ITA) end season with a win Olang/Valdaora (ck) - Patrick Pigneter/Florian Clara (ITA) made everything clear in the last race of the season and with a win ended the head to head duel with Russia’s Pavel Porschnev/Ivan Lazarev. “Training and the first run did not go really well and we did not quite know how to achieve better times. We did not make any major mistakes. We did not have much room for improvement with our equipment, so the biggest change we made was in our heads. Our second run was all or nothing. We took the finish curve with full speed which we had never done before with the doubleseater sled”, said Pigneter, who managed once again to win the overall single as well double world cup in one season. “After the world championships it was our biggest goal to win the overall world cup and it was great that it was such a tight competition”, said Clara. By winning the race in Olang/Valdaora they did not only secure their fourth consecutive overall title, but also tied Reinhard Beer/Herbert Kögl (AUT) who so far with 18 wins had been the most successful doubleseater athletes in the eternal ranking lists. The Austrians who quit their careers many years ago achieved 44 podium results (18-17-9) whereas Pigneter/Clara stand at 24 (18-5-1). Closely beaten were the leaders after the first run, Christian Schatz/Gerhard Mühlbacher (AUT). “We are satisfied, though. No need to be ashamed when you finish eight hundredths behind the winners”, said Schatz. Their thoughts are focused on the future already: “The combination Schatz/Mühlbacher has been worthwhile in the past six years and will also be present in the next season. We are already working on the next generation sled for next season. You take a rest for a few weeks and you find yourself miles away”, said Mühlbacher. Russia's Pavel Porschnev/Ivan Lazarev, defeated by Schatz/Mühlbacher by one hundredth of a second and ranked third, also think of next year already. “It has become a tradition already that we finish second in the overall world cup, next year we want to win it again”, said Lazarev. They think they already lost the world cup two weeks ago in Unterammergau where they finished sixth. “It was a difficult task for us today. We had to win and Pigneter/Clara could not finish better than third for us to win the overall ranking.” In the women’s event, the first run was held today already. Renate Gietl (ITA) took the lead ahead of Ekatharina Lavrentjeva (RUS) and Melanie Batkowski (AUT). The second run will be held tomorrow, Saturday. Final Results Doubles (10): 1. Patrick PIGNETER/Florian CLARA (ITA), 1:12,91(3), 1:12,25(1), 2:25,16 2. Christian SCHATZ/Gerhard MÜHLBACHER (AUT), 1:12,59(1), 1:12,65(3), 2:25,24 3. Pavel PORSHNEV/Ivan LAZAREV (RUS), 1:12,69(2), 1:12,56(2), 2:25,25 4. Thomas SCHOPF/Andreas SCHÖPF (AUT), 1:13,22(4), 1:13,36(5), 2:26,58 5. Stanislav KOVSHIK/Ilya TARASOV (RUS), 1:13,65(6), 1:13,14(4), 2:26,79 6. Andrzej LASZCZAK/Damian WANICZEK (POL), 1:13,45(5), 1:13,41(6), 2:26,86 7. Björn KIERSPEL/Christian WICHAN (GER), 1:14,47(7), 1:14,80(8), 2:29 Final Standing World Cup Doubles (6/6): 1. Patrick PIGNETER/Florian CLARA (ITA) 525 2. Pavel PORSHNEV/Ivan LAZAREV (RUS) 475 3. Christian SCHATZ/Gerhard MÜHLBACHER (AUT) 410 4. Christian SCHOPF/Andreas SCHOPF (AUT) 345 5. Björn KIERSPEL/Christian WICHAN (GER) 242 6. Stanislav KOVSHIK/Ilya TARASOV (RUS) 222 7. Thomas SCHOPF/Andreas SCHÖPF (AUT) 221 8. Andrzej LASZCZAK/Damian WANICZEK (POL) 195 9. Florian BREITENBERGER/David MAIR (ITA) 138 10. Aleksandr EGOROV/Petr POPOV (RUS) 125