Zelezniki (ck) - The winners are the same as one week ago, but the places behind the top stars are contested tighter week by week. This confirms Renate Gietl (ITA), three times runner up behind Ekatharina Lavrentjeva (RUS), when she says: “My motto is to work, work, and work. The margins behind me have become smaller and smaller. All I can do is attack and hope to put extra pressure on them. I personally am satisfied when I manage to deliver my best performance.” This she did, as Lavrentjeva was once again sliding within her own league. Nothing less than 1.71 seconds was her leading margin and she was not even at her best: “I tried everything I needed for a good race in my training runs, but in my first run I made a huge mistake and my second run was not perfect, either”, she said. Her bed against the podium swapped Austria’s Melanie Batkowski, who had to skip the first two World Cup races: “I have been down in bed for full two weeks. I am not exactly sure what it was, some flu or an infection. However, I had not been on a sled for three weeks before I came here, “said Batkowski, who with her third place in Zelezniki celebrated her 25th world cup podium finish. Her big goal for the season is the European Championship now in Novouralsk (RUS) in mid March, as “it will be very difficult to achieve a good overall world cup result”. With Patrick Pigneter (ITA) winning once again – his 25th win in a single seater race, also the men’s event saw an early prediction of the possible overall world cup winner. Currently he seems totally at ease while winning race after race, full of new found motivation: “I am totally enjoying myself these days, it is fun to slide and all runs really smoothly. You can feel that something is done for the sport now and there has never been such a variety as it is now”, says the Italian, who has been dominating the sport during the past six years. In fact, after the first run athletes from five different nations were placed within the first nine ranks. Eventually the podium with Pigneter, Hannes Clara and Rudi Resch was an Italian clean sweep, followed by a group of Austrians, who had convinced with strong second runs, but Pagon Ziga (SLO), Juri Talikh (RUS) and Adam Jedrzejko (POL) completed the newly mixed picture of the top twelve and let hope for stronger competition for the successful Italian team. Hannes Clara finished second once again and was almost surprised: “I did not like this track with its narrow angles and long straights back in 2008 at the world cup final. But today I had a surprisingly good run. I am in good shape and right now my overall package seems just right”, he said. With a good second run, Rudi Resch pushed Austria’s Michael Scheikl off the podium and admits: “I did not count on a podium finish, but hoped for one. After all, everybody makes mistakes now and then, not only me.” This January’s tight world cup program will be continued next week with the WÜRZ Energy World Cup in Deutschnofen in Italy. Final Results World Cup Women (13): 1. Ekatharina LAVRENTJEVA (RUS), 0:58,56(1), 0:58,22(1), 1:56,78 2. Renate GIETL (ITA), 0:59,34(2), 0:59,15(3), 1:58,49 3. Melanie BATKOWSKI (AUT), 0:59,41(3), 0:59,14(2), 1:58,55 4. Melanie SCHWARZ (ITA), 0:59,45(4), 0:59,61(5), 1:59,06 5. Tamara SCHWARZ (ITA), 1:00,33(6), 0:59,42(4), 1:59,75 6. Evelin LANTHALER (ITA), 0:59,73(5), 1:00,08(6), 1:59,81 7. Tina UNTERBERGER (AUT), 1:01,41(8), 1:00,18(7), 2:01,59 8. Marlies WAGNER (AUT), 1:00,90(7), 1:00,98(8), 2:01,88 9. Veronika NACHMANN (GER), 2:03,29 10. Christian GÖTSCHL (AUT), 2:03,74 Final Results World Cup Men (38): 1. Patrick PIGNETER (ITA), 0:57,16(1), 0:57,55(1), 1:54,71 2. Hannes CLARA (ITA), 0:57,52(3), 0:57,91(2), 1:55,43 3. Rudi RESCH (ITA), 0:57,89(4), 0:57,91(2), 1:55,80 4. Michael SCHEIKL (AUT), 0:57,50(2), 0:58,46(7), 1:55,96 5. Gerald KAMMERLANDER (AUT), 0:58,04(6), 0:58,05(4), 1:56,09 6. Gernot SCHWAB (AUT), 0:58,36(11), 0:58,16(5), 1:56,52 7. Robert BATKOWSKI (AUT), 0:58,35(19), 0:58,19(6), 1:56,54 8. Alex GRUBER (ITA), 0:57,95(5), 0:58,65(9), 1:56,60 9. Adam JEDRZEJKO (POL), 0:58,05(7), 0:58,69(10), 1:56,74 10. Thomas KAMMERLANDER (AUT), 0:58,36(11), 0:58,51(8), 1:56,87 11. Ziga PAGON (SLO), 1:57,03 12. Juri TALIKH (RUS), 1:57,07 World Cup Rankings (3/6): Women: 1. Ekatharina LAVRENTJEVA (RUS) 300 points 2. Renate GIETL (ITA) 255 3. Melanie SCHWARZ (ITA) 190 4. Tina UNTERBERGER (AUT) 140 5. Marlies WAGNER (AUT) 124 6. Ludmila AKSENENKO (RUS) 122 7. Evelin LANTHALER (ITA) 120 8. Veronika NACHMANN (GER) 105 8. Tamara SCHWARZ (ITA) 105 10. Christina GÖTSCHL (AUT) 96 Men: 1. Patrick PIGNETER (ITA) 300 points 2. Alex GRUBER (ITA) 187 3. Rudi RESCH (ITA) 176 4. Hannes CLARA (ITA) 170 5. Michael SCHEIKL (AUT) 166 6. Florian CLARA (ITA) 136 7. Stanislav KOVSHIK (RUS) 134 8. Robert BATKOWSKI (AUT) 126 9. Gernot SCHWAB (AUT) 118 10. Juri TALIKH (RUS) 108 11. Thomas KAMMERLANDER (AUT) 106 12. Adam JEDRZEJKO (POL) 98