Toboggan World Championships in Deutschnofen: Pigneter's third prank

After gold and bronze in the team competition as well as gold in the doubles by Pigneter/Clara, there were another four medals for South Tyrol today, namely - as mentioned - gold for Patrick Pigneter, silver for Melanie Schwarz, and bronze for Evelin Lanthaler and Alex Gruber. Deutschnofen looks back proudly on a successful World Cup. It was the best advertisement for the sport of natural track tobogganing. There was no sign of a crisis in natural track tobogganing during these World Cup days, neither on the slopes nor off.

Small detail on the side: Pigneter, Lavrentjeva and the Pigneter/Clara double extend an incredible series on the Pföslriep toboggan run in Nova Ponente: They have never lost here!

In the women's category, Ekatharina Lavrentjeva lived up to her role as favorite and downright outclassed the competition. The Russian, who remains unbeaten on the Deutschnofner track, achieved the best time in all three runs, taking exactly two seconds off silver medalist Melanie Schwarz. In the men's race, high-flyer Lavrentjeva would have finished in 9th place - impressive. Nevertheless, 23-year-old Melanie Schwarz from Latsch could be satisfied with her World Cup: gold in the team competition and silver in the individual competition were confirmation of the performances recently shown in the World Cup. Bronze went to 2,22-year-old Evelin Lanthaler from Passiria, 21 seconds behind. The 17-year-old Greta Pinggera had to make do with sheet metal, but she had nothing to blame herself for, as she was already 1,5 seconds behind bronze. Sarah Gruber completed the great team performance of the South Tyroleans in 7th place. All 4 South Tyroleans were in the top 7 – this result is impressive.

Pigneter with a wafer-thin lead

For the men, Patrick Pigneter was able to enjoy a swim in the crowd after his hat trick, shake hands and pose for souvenir photos. But the big favorite had to fight hard for the individual world championship title, because the Austrian fastest in training and doubles bronze winner Thomas Schopf was in extremely strong form in Nova Ponente these days. After two runs Pigneter was a mere hundredth of a second ahead of Schopf, after three runs it was six hundredths. As with his only previous individual world championship title in Moos in 2009, Pigneter had luck on his side this time too: four years ago, four hundredths of a second made the difference against Thomas Kammerlander, this time six hundredths. At the top, Pigneter was already two tenths behind in the decisive run, but as always, Pigneter found the best line in the lower section of the Pföslriep and was able to celebrate. Alex Gruber was also able to celebrate, having finally made his way back to the top of the world with bronze. Similar to the South Tyrolean women, their compatriots also ensured an excellent team performance: All six South Tyroleans who started ended up in the top 9: Pigneter 1st, Alex Gruber 3rd, the Junior World Champion from Deutschnofen 2010 Hannes Clara 4th (he was on the ungrateful 4th place but already half a second behind bronze), Stefan Gruber 6th, Florian Breitenberger 7th and Florian Clara 9th. The Austrian defending champion Gerald Kammerlander even finished the World Championships in eleventh place, a whopping 3,30 seconds behind Pigneter.

By the way: With six World Cup medals, Pigneter is now the third most successful World Cup athlete in history behind Gerhard Pilz and Ekatharina Lavrentjeva. Five-time world champion Gerhard Pilz and several other former world champions were present in Deutschnofen.

The World Cup organizers also earned gold. Josef Fendt, the President of the International Toboggan Association FIL, thanked the prize winners for the “excellent organization of the World Cup” and said: “I can't stop using superlatives when I describe this event.” Countless employees - a three-digit number - have the World Cup turned into a four-day sports festival for athletes and the public. For four days, an enormous enthusiasm for sport blew through the village, which could also be felt, but not only, in the (full) stands in the finish area. A considerable part of the population was on their feet to live up to Deutschnofen's reputation as a small tobogganing stronghold. The OC bosses Christian Gallmetzer and Martin Mittermair can be proud of their team. In fact, Christian Gallmetzer is full of thanks: “Everything worked out great, thanks to the many hard-working volunteers who solved even complex tasks professionally.” Gallmetzer draws a positive conclusion: “We can be extremely satisfied: fantastic weather and a dream winter backdrop, lots of spectators , an interesting supporting program that was well received by people, and exciting races. We couldn't ask for more.” On several occasions, Gallmetzer did not fail to thank the many (private and public) sponsors who made the event possible.

Everything you need to know including the results is there here .

All World Cup results from Deutschnofen:

team competition Gold: Italy 1 (Melanie Schwarz, Alex Gruber, Patrick Pigneter/Florian Clara) 2.49,35:XNUMX minutes Silver: Russia 1 (Ekatharina Lavrentjeva, Stanislav Kovshik, Pavel Porschnev/Ivan Lazarev) 2.51,77 Bronze: Italy 2 (Evelin Lanthaler, Florian Breitenberger, Hannes Clara/Stefan Gruber) 2.52,92

double seater Gold: Patrick Pigneter/ Florian Clara (ITA) 1.56,08:XNUMX minutes Silver: Christian Schopf/Andreas Schopf (AUT) + 1,30 Bronze: Thomas Schopf/Andreas Schöpf (AUT) + 1,47 4. Aleksandr Egorov/Petr Popov (RUS) + 1,63 5. Pavel Porshnev/Ivan Lazarev (RUS) +1,67 6. Hannes Clara/Stefan Gruber (ITA) +2,22

Single seater ladies Gold: Ekatharina Lavrentjeva (RUS) 2.46,87:XNUMX minutes Silver: Melanie Schwarz (ITA) + 2,00 Bronze: Evelin Lanthaler (ITA) + 2,22 4. Greta Pinggera (ITA) + 3,73 5. Michaela Maurer (GER) + 5,12 6. Tina Unterberger (AUT) + 5,22 7. Sarah Gruber (ITA) + 5,27

Single seater men Gold: Patrick Pigneter (ITA) 2.44,11:XNUMX minutes Silver: Thomas Schopf (AUT) 0,06 Bronze: Alex Gruber (AUT) 0,58 4. Hannes Clara (ITA) 1,13 5. Thomas Kammerlander (AUT) 1,48 6. Stefan Gruber (ITA) 1,83 7. Florian Breitenberger (ITA) 1,98 8. Michael Scheikl (AUT) 2,43 9. Florian Clara (ITA) 2,85 10. Gernot Schwab (AUT) 3,19 11. Georg Maurer (GER) 3,22 12. Gerald Kammerlander (AUT) 3,30

Medal table Italy 7 (3 gold/1 silver/3 bronze) Russia 2 (1/1/-) Austria 3 (-/2/1)

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Toboggan World Championships in Deutschnofen: Pigneter's third prank

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