Huettau (ck) What already could be seen in the World Cup was now continued in the European Championships: it seems to be the year of the Russians. A girls named Ekatharina Lavrentjeva seems to be racing within her own league and she has nothing in common with the old fashioned picture of Russians that the one or the other might still have. Ekatharina Lavrentjeva is a cheerful young lady, who enjoys life and gives interviews in German language. So she explains that she did not have a perfect race today. Her favourite strategy is to have a really good first run so that she can relax a little bit towards the end of the race. "I hade a mistake in a curve, but I made it up in the following passages, so my first run was not too bad. But my second run was the perfect one." So she only needed a "good" third run and the title was hers.
She also speaks about how difficult it is to have a perfect run without any mistake and that she hardly ever manages to have such a run. But then again, all the others make mistakes, too, she says. And how right she is. She would have had enough margin for the one or the other mistake more, since she won her title 1,39 seconds ahead of Christa Gietl from Italy, who made a major mistake right after the start of the final run. "I touched the wall and lost a lot of time there, but it kind of woke me up and the rest of the run was pretty good. But even without this mistake I would not have been able to beat Ekatharina." Christa Gietl is happy about her silver medal and shares the joy with her team mate Barbara Abart. Even though the tough competition within the Italian team they are all good friends and somehow rotate their appearances on the podium. Barabra Abart celebrated her biggest career result in her still young career. She is 19 years old and attends a sports school in Mals in Italy. She will graduate this year and then start planning on her future as a luger.
The Russian succees was even quadrupled in the double seaters race: Pawel Porschnev/Ivan Lazarev won ahead of Denis Almov/Roman Molistov. They were excited about their success, especially as they still do not have the same funds as their west European colleagues, they say. "We have less training, worse material, for sure less money, but we owe a lot to Alexander Knyr, who is a great technician and sometimes builds incredible sleds without any resources", they explain. It became obvious that these are not empty words when the Luge Family travelled back to central Europe after the World Cup in Russia: almost everybody went to the airport to catch a flight back home, the Russian team and a few others went to the bus terminal to start the 48-hours bus-ride from Moscow to Munich. Nevertheless they were in good spirits and strong enough to win gold and silver medal in the double seaters event.
Bronze went to the cousins Wolfgang and Andreas Schopf, who could not defend their title but at least finish on the podium. "We are not satisfied, we had many small mistakes," they said afterwards, but proved once more that from the day they started winning in the World Cup they are always contenders for a medal, even when at a first look it seems that they are not having a good season. "We had some problems last year, but this year we have regained our harmony and also the material matches much better.
The men of the day was – once again – Gerhard Pilz. He defended his title seemingly without any problems. But it was not that easy, he explains: "Afterwards it may look easy, but with these changing weather conditions little things can have big influence. What if Patrik Pigneter had had a perfect run yesterday? We would have been too far away. So it was luck that he had some mistakes, too." In the first run the warm weather had made the track softer and everybody who had to start at the end of the field had not had any chance to beat Patrik Pigneter who had taken the lead with bib number four. But Gerhard Pilz used all his routine and finished 4th in the difficult first run. Gerald and Roland Kallan, the local heroes, buried all chances for the title in this run. Gerald, only 10th after the first run, pulled together all his nerve and started to fight for a medal. But it was a difficult task: "When you spend hours over hours at this track and prepare yourself for this big event and you find yourself at the 10th place after the first run, it is very difficult to feel good. But I tried to find new motivation and tried to start the race all over on the second day and I am glad it went well." In a breath-taking finish Gerald Kallan went for the bronze medal whereas all young Italians who had been ranked way before Kallan could not stand the pressure and fell back. The only exception was Andreas Castiglioni who won the silver medal. "I am so happy, this is my best result ever, next to my second place in the World Cup. I did have a mistake right after the start, but then I took full risk and I am so glad it went well for me."
Results:
Final Results Doubles (16 Starters):
1. Pawel Porschnev/Ivan Lazarev (RUS), 1:07,88 (1), 1:08,28 (1), 2:16,16;
2. Denis Alimov/Roman Molistov (RUS), 1:08,32 (2), 1:08,49 (2), 2:16,81;
3. Wolfgang Schopf/Andreas Schopf (AUT), 1:08,73 (3), 1:08,65 (3), 2:17,38;
4. Reinhard Beer/Herbert Kögl (AUT), 1:08,79 (4), 1:08,77 (5), 2:17,56;
5. Armin Mair/Johannes Hofer (ITA), 1:08,80 (5), 1:08,89 (6), 2.17,69;
6. Aleksandr Egerov/Petr Popov (RUS), 1:09,54 (10), 1.08,66 (4), 2.18,20;
7. Andrzej Laszczak/Damian Waniczek (POL), 1:08,99 (8), 1:09,30 (7), 2:18,29
8. Günther Innerbichler/Alex Innerbichler (ITA), 1:08,88 (7), 1:09,45 (8), 2:18,33;
9. Harald Kleinhofer/Gerhard Mühlbacher (AUT), 1:08,85 (6), 1:09,66 (9), 2:18,51;
10. Simone Deme/Michael Squinabol (ITA), 1:09,49 (9), 1:09,95 (10), 2:19,44
Final Results Women (26 Starters):
1. Ekatharina Lavrentjeva (RUS), 1:05,20 (1), 1:04,69 (1), 1:05,25 (1), 3:15,14
2. Christa Gietl (ITA), 1:05,53 (4), 1:05,24 (3), 1:05,76 (4), 3:16,53
3. Barbara Abart (ITA), 1:05,25 (2), 1:05,71 (5), 1:05,68 (3), 3:16,64
4. Marlies Wagner (AUT), 1:05, 39 (3), 1:06,15 (9), 1:05,46 (2), 3:17,00
5. Julia Vetlova (RUS), 1:05,67 (5), 1.05,67 (4), 1.05,90 (5), 3:17,24
6. Karolina Wanicek (POL), 1:06,13 (8), 1:05,18 (2), 1:06,11 (6), 3:17,42
7. Renate Gietl (ITA), 1:06,22 (9), 1:06,02 (7), 1:06,27 (8), 3:18,51
8. Renate Kasslatter (ITA), 1:06,49 (13), 1:05,72 (6), 1:06,41 (9), 3:18,62
9. Sandra Lanthaler (ITA), 1:06,02 (7), 1:06,22 (11), 1:06,74 (10), 3:18,98
10. Sandra Mariner (AUT), 1:06,39 (11), 1:06,37 (12), 1:06,24 (7), 3:19,00
11. Ewelina Zurek (POL), 1:06,30 (10), 1:06,07 (8), 1:07,07 (12), 3:19,44
12. Tina Unterberger (AUT), 1:05,88 (6), 1:06,19 (10), 1:07,89 (17)
Final Results Men (48 Starters):
1. Gerhard Pilz (AUT), 1:04,77 (4), 1:03,42 (1), 1:04,43 (3), 3:12,62
2. Andreas Castiglioni (ITA), 1:04,58 (2), 1:03,88 (3), 1:04,75 (6), 3:13,21
3. Gerald Kallan (AUT), 1:05,39 (10), 1:03,97 (6), 1:04,29 (2), 3:13,65
4. Martin Psenner (ITA), 1:04,59 (3), 1:04,03 (8), 1:05,12 (15), 3:13,74
5. Anton Blasbichler (ITA), 1:05,26 (8), 1:03,92 (4), 1:04,84 (9), 3:14,02
6. Patrik Pigneter (ITA), 1:04,40 (1), 1:04,51 (12), 1:05,20 (17), 3:14,11
7. Andreas Gruber (ITA), 1:15,01 (6), 1:03,81 (2), 1:05,35 (19), 3:14,17
8. Gerald Kammerlander (AUT), 1:05,71 (13), 1:04,15 (9), 1:04,44 (4), 3:14,30
9. Florian Breitenberger (ITA),1:05,37 (9), 1:04,22 (10), 1:04,22 (10), 3:14,35
10. Roland Kallan (AUT), 1:05,18 (7), 1:03,99 (7), 1:05,25 (18), 3:14,42
11. Gernot Schwab (AUT), 1:05,43(12), 1:03,94(5), 1:05,11 (14), 3:14,48
12. Robert Batkowsky (AUT), 1:05,80 (16), 1:04,76 (16), 1:04,21 (1), 3:14,77
13. Christoph Wagner (AUT)
14. Daniel Quitta (ITA)
15. Marcus Grausam (GER)
16. Philipp Wagner (AUT)
17. Rudi Resch (ITA)
18. Borut Fejfar (SLO)
19. Borut Kralj (SLO)
20. Aleksei Lebedev (RUS)
