Toboggan World Championships in Deutschnofen: Second gold for Pigneter/Clara

Silver and bronze went to Austria, namely the brothers Christian and Andreas Schopf, who had a bad fall in yesterday's team competition, as well as Thomas Schopf/Andreas Schöpf. Hannes Clara and Stefan Gruber came in sixth.

Patrick Pigneter could repeat his historic gold hat-trick from 2009 in the single-seater competition tomorrow. Tomorrow, Sunday, the World Luge Championships will reach its climax. From a sporting perspective, the medals in the men's and women's single-seater competitions will be awarded starting at 10 a.m., and the supporting program will include a morning pint with live music from 9 a.m. directly on the Pföslriep rode slope and - for the children - a bouncy castle and a bouncy castle from 10 a.m Make-up corner for the little princesses and – why not – princes.

After the gold shower for the South Tyroleans in yesterday's team competition with gold (Melanie Schwarz, Alex Gruber, Patrick Pigneter/Florian Clara) and bronze (Evelin Lanthaler, Florian Breitenberger, Hannes Clara/Stefan Gruber), the local heroes won gold again today celebrate. The new world champions Patrick Pigneter and Florian Clara, who were already part of the gold team yesterday, laid the foundation for their second doubles gold after 2009 (Moos in Passeier) in the first run. With a time of 57,90 seconds, they were only two hundredths of a second behind their own track record, set at the World Cup a year ago, and put 0,99 seconds between themselves and the second-placed Russians Egorov/Popov. In the second run, the World Cup leaders were only slightly slower (58,18 seconds) and were able to celebrate a confident victory at the finish.

The fact remains: Pigneter/Clara remain undefeated in Deutschnofen. They were in a league of their own today. After two runs, the second-placed Austrians Schopf/Schopf, who were fastest in training on Thursday and yesterday won a medal in the team competition with a nasty fall, were 1,3 seconds behind. Austria also took bronze with Thomas Schopf (the silver medalist's cousin) and Andreas Schöpf. The defending champions and reigning World Cup winners were disappointing today: Pavel Porshnev and Ivan Lazarev only ended up in fifth place, 1,67 seconds behind. Right behind them in sixth place was the second South Tyrolean duo, Hannes Clara/Stefan Gruber, 2,22 seconds behind.

Lavrentjeva is clearly on course for gold

In the women's singles, the big favorite Ekatharina Lavrentjeva is racing towards her fourth individual world championship title after 2000, 2005 and 2007 in the absence of Renate Gietl. The women have already held two of the three races today, the third and decisive one will follow tomorrow morning. But after running the fastest time twice, Lavrentjeva is already exactly one second ahead of the once again strong South Tyrolean team world champion Melanie Schwarz. The South Tyroleans once again showed a strong team performance: Melanie Schwarz second, Evelin Lanthaler third, Greta Pinggera fourth and Sarah Gruber seventh. However, it will be difficult for fourth-placed Pinggera to overtake her two teammates in the medal positions: after two runs, she is at least 0,67 seconds behind Lanthaler.

Pigneter leads the men's race

The two-time world champion from Deutschnofen Patrick Pigneter was not granted a break. Immediately after winning the doubles, he had to compete in the first of three races in the singles competition, where he has the chance tomorrow morning to win his third gold in Nova Ponente and thus repeat the historic hat trick that he achieved four years ago in Moos Passeier is the only athlete in toboggan history to have achieved this. After the first run, Pigneter is already in the lead, but only 6 hundredths of a second ahead of the once again extremely strong training best and doubles bronze winner Thomas Schopf from Austria and 10 hundredths of a second ahead of the resurgent Alex Gruber. Just like the women, the South Tyrolean men presented themselves as extremely strong teams: all six athletes ended up in the top 10 in the first round: Pigneter 1st, Alex Gruber 3rd, Stefan Gruber 4th, Florian Breitenberger 6th, Hannes Clara (on this track Junior World Champion 2010) 7th and doubles world champion Florian Clara 10th, 1,01 seconds behind his double colleague Pigneter. In between are the Kammerlander brothers from Austria: Thomas Kammerlander, who inflicted Patrick Pigneter's first World Cup defeat in almost two years in Moos in Passeier in mid-January, is lurking in 5th place, the reigning world champion Gerald Kammerlander just ahead of Florian Clara in 9th place.

Everything you need to know about the World Natural Track Luge Championships can be found here www.svdeutschnofen.it .

Final result double seater:

1. Patrick Pigneter/Florian Clara (ITA), 0:57,90(1), 0:58,18(1), 1:56,08 2. Christian Schopf/Andreas Schopf (AUT), 0:59,10(4), 0:58,28(2), 1:57,38 3. Thomas Schopf/Andreas Schöpf(AUT), 0:58,91(3), 0:58,64(4), 1:57,55 4. Aleksandr Egorov/Petr Popov(RUS), 0:58,89(2), 0:58,82(5), 1:57,71 5. Pavel Porshnev/Ivan Lazarev (RUS), 0:59,27(5), 0:58,48(3), 1:57,75 6. Hannes Clara/Stefan Gruber (ITA), 0:59,31(6), 0:58,99(6), 1:58,30 7. Christian Schatz/Gerhard Mühlbacher(AUT), 0:59,55(8), 0:59,73(8), 1:59,28 8. Pavel Silin/Ivan Rodin(RUS), 0:59,40(7), 0:59,91(10), 1:59,31

Intermediate standings for women after two races:

1. Ekatahrina Lavrentjeva (RUS), 0:55,45(1), 0:55,85(1) 2. Melanie Schwarz (ITA), 0:56,11(2), 0:56,19(2), 3. Evelin Lanthaler (ITA), 0:56,27(3), 0:56,40(3), 4. Greta Pinggera (ITA), 0:56,62(4), 0:56,72(4) 5. Michaela Maurer (GER), 0:57,09(5), 0:57,20(5) 6. Tina Unterberger (AUT), 0:57,35(7), 0:57,46(6), 7. Sarah Gruber (ITA), 0:57,21(6), 0:57,61(7)

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Toboggan World Championships in Deutschnofen: Second gold for Pigneter/Clara

Patrick Pigneter and Florian Clara lived up to the high expectations and won their second gold medal at the World Natural Track Luge Championships in Nova Ponente after the one in yesterday's team competition.

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