European Natural Track Luge Championships 1997

The 17th FIL Natural Track Luge European Championship took place from January 31 to February 2, 1997 in Moos, Italy, in Passeier .

Single seater men

space	Surname	time
01	Reinhard Gruber	?
02	Manfred Graves	?
03	Gerhard Pilz	?
04th	Anton Blasbichler	?
05	Gotthard Hofer	?
06th	Martin Gruber	?
07th	Martin Psenner	?
08th	Christian Hafner	?
09	Stefan Karner	?
10	Hansjörg Ellemunter	?
11	Andi Ruetz	?
12	Daniele Pieiller	?
13	Robert Tomelitsch	?
14th	Anton Maurer	?
15th	Georg Eberharter	?
16	Helmut Ruetz	?
17th	Knut Solheim	?
18th	Patrick Clemens	?
19th	Borut Fejfar	?
20th	Peter Lechner	?
21st	Grega Spendov	?
22nd	Ari Tuominen	?
	Gašper Benedik	?
24	Marcus Cruel	?
25th	Marcin Pawlus	?
26th	Tomi Ahonen	?
27	Norbert Parusel	?
28	Gašper Megušar	?
29	Vili Rakovec	?
30th	Jacek Andrzejewski	?
31	Michał Andrzejewski	?
32	Franz Dreher	?
33	Andrzej Laszczak	?
34	Eddy Dunlop	?
-	Ferdinand Hirzegger	DNF
-	Marko Meglič	DNF

The 19-year-old Reinhard Gruber from Italy became European champion in the men's singles. He won the race in front of his compatriot and defending champion Manfred Gräber . The reigning world champion Gerhard Pilz from Austria came in third .

Single-seater women

space	Surname	time
01	Lyubov Panjutina	?
02	Elvira Holzknecht	?
03	Sonja Steinacher	?
04th	Simona Martin	?
05	Christa Gietl	?
06th	Erna Schweigl	?
07th	Sandra Mariner	?
08th	Luzia Seeber	?
09	Sonja Dobson	?
10	Manuela Zanona	?
11	Tina Tolar	?
12	Hanna Ristola	?
13	Kamila Machnik	?
-	Nicole Greener	DNS

For the first time in the history of the European Natural Track Luge Championships, the women's singles title did not go to a female luge from Italy or Austria. The 26-year-old Russian Lyubov Panjutina , who was already world champion in 1992 and second at the last European championship, won the gold medal. Silver went to the Austrian Elvira Holzknecht , who had finished third in the last two European championships and was already second twice at world championships. The bronze medal went to the Italian Sonja Steinacher , for whom it was the first medal in championships.

Two-seater

space	Surname	time
01	Helmut Ruetz - Andi Ruetz	?
02	Martin Psenner - Christian Hafner	?
03	Reinhard Beer - Herbert Kögl	?
04th	Roland Niedermair - Hubert Burger	?
05	Armin Mair - David Mair	?
06th	Martin Schneebauer - Peter Lechner	?
07th	Marcin Pawlus - Andrzej Laszczak	?
08th	Peter Braunegger - Klaus Mauracher	?
09	Christian Schatz - Stefan Karner	?
10	Gerd Mittermair - Werner Töchterle	?
-	Jacek Andrzejewski - Michał Andrzejewski	DNF

The Austrians Helmut and Andi Ruetz became European champions in the doubles for the second time in a row. The Italians Martin Psenner and Christian Hafner won the silver medal . Psenner had already finished second together with Arthur Künig at the last European Championship, while Hafner had finished third together with Jürgen Pezzi . The reigning world champions Reinhard Beer and Herbert Kögl from Austria won the bronze medal .

Medal table

space	country	gold	silver	bronze	total
1.	Italy	1	2	1	4th
2.	Austria	1	1	2	4th
3.	Russia	1	-	-	1

literature

• Harald Steyrer, Herbert Wurzer, Egon Theiner: 50 years of FIL 1957–2007. The history of the International Luge Federation in three volumes . tape II . Egoth Verlag, Vienna 2007, ISBN 978-3-902480-46-0 , p. 329 .