European Natural Track Luge Championships 2008

The 22nd FIL - European Natural Track Luge Championships took place from February 15 to 17, 2008 in Olang, Italy on the Panorama toboggan run .

Technical data of the natural toboggan run

Surname	"Panorama" toboggan run
Start above sea level	1223.43 m
Sea level destination	1105.75 m
Height difference	0117.68 m
length	1008.50 m
Average gradient	0011.77%
Maximum gradient	0019.20%
Minimal gradient	0003.60%

Single seater men

space	Surname	time
01	Robert Batkowski	3: 28.16 min
02	Anton Blasbichler	+ 00.18 s
03	Patrick Pigneter	+ 01.02 s
04th	Michael Scheikl	+ 01.48 s
05	Rudi Resch	+ 02.04 s
06th	Hannes Clara	+ 02.19 s
07th	Florian Breitenberger	+ 02.22 s
08th	Gerald Kammerlander	+ 02.87 s
09	Florian Batkowski	+ 02.96 s
10	Gernot Schwab	+ 03.00 s
11	Christian Black	+ 03.40 s
12	Damian Waniczek	+ 03.98 s
13	Georg Maurer	+ 04.19 s
14th	Kaj Johnson	+ 04.70 s
15th	Alexander Yegorov	+ 05.18 s
16	Thomas Kammerlander	+ 05.31 s
17th	Marcus Cruel	+ 05.91 s
18th	Bjorn Kierspel	+ 05.92 s
19th	Christian Wichan	+ 06.29 s
20th	Adam Jędrzejko	+ 07.19 s
21st	Žiga Pagon	+ 07.23 s
22nd	Ivan Lazarev	+ 08.60 s
23	Miha Meglič	+ 10.24 s
24	Galabin Bozew	+ 11.03 s
25th	Andrzej Laszczak	+ 12.99 s
26th	Matic Nemc	+ 14.69 s
27	Ihor Senjuk	+ 16.17 s
28	Patrick Nowik	+ 22.98 s
29	Marjan Husner	+ 26.79 s
30th	Chavdar Arsov	+ 28.08 s
31	Yevhen Prysjaschnjuk	+ 28.35 s
32	Eddy Dunlop	+ 34.12 s
33	Vitaly Sakharov	+ 58.64 s
-	Robert Stadler	DNF (3rd run)
-	Markus Wichan	DNF (1st run)

Date: February 16 (1st race) and February 17, 2008 (2nd and 3rd race)

Robert Batkowski , the 2003 world champion, was the European champion with the fastest time in the second of the three races. The silver medal went to Italian Anton Blasbichler , who set the fastest time in the third race but lost too much time on Batkowski in the second. As in the 2006 European Championship, the bronze medal was won by the Italian Patrick Pigneter . He won the first of the three runs and was still in the lead after the second, but lost over 1.4 seconds in the third race. The defending champion Gernot Schwab finished tenth.

Single-seater women

space	Surname	time
01	Ekaterina Lavrentieva	3: 31.01 min
02	Renate Kasslatter	+ 01.45 s
03	Renate Gietl	+ 01.64 s
04th	Melanie Batkowski	+ 02.51 s
05	Julia Wetlowa	+ 03.26 s
06th	Evelin Lanthaler	+ 04.39 s
07th	Marlies Wagner	+ 05.24 s
08th	Melanie Black	+ 06.53 s
09	Tina Unterberger	+ 06.59 s
10	Michaela Maurer	+ 10.65 s
11	Katrin Mladek	+ 10.89 s
12	Oksana Jelessina	+ 11.40 s
13	Olga Sidorova	+ 12.10 s
14th	Veronika Nachmann	+ 13.10 s
15th	Irma Karišik	+ 17.84 s

Date: February 16 (1st and 2nd race) and February 17, 2008 (3rd race)

The reigning world champion Jekaterina Lavrentjewa became European champion for the second time after 2004 with best times in the first and second races. The third race was won by the silver medalist Renate Kasslatter from Italy, relegating her teammate Renate Gietl - she was still in second place after two races - to third place.

Two-seater

space	Surname	time
01	Pavel Pornev - Ivan Lazarev	2: 25.39 min
02	Patrick Pigneter - Florian Clara	+ 00.42 s
03	Alexander Yegorov - Pyotr Popov	+ 01.91 s
04th	Christian Schatz - Gerhard Mühlbacher	+ 03.80 s
05	Björn Kierspel - Christian Wichan	+ 04.02 s
06th	Denis Alimov - Roman Molwistow	+ 04.23 s
07th	Andrzej Laszczak - Damian Waniczek	+ 04.67 s
08th	Christian Schopf - Herbert Kögl	+ 05.19 s
09	Christoph Knauder - Thomas Knauder	+ 05.51 s
10	Thomas Weiss - Andreas Head	+ 05.88 s
11	Pavel Silin - Ivan Rodin	+ 08.06 s
12	Vitaly Sakharov - Ihor Senjuk	+ 09.21 s
13	Galabin Bozew - Chavdar Arsow	+ 12.87 s
14th	Jewhen Prysjaschnjuk - Marjan Husner	+ 13.70 s

Date: February 16, 2008 (both races)

The Russians Pawel Porschnew and Ivan Lasarew became European champions in the doubles for the third time in a row. Previously, only the Austrians Andi and Helmut Ruetz had succeeded in this in the 1990s. The silver medal went to the Italians Patrick Pigneter and Florian Clara , who had won all the World Cup races of the season. At the European Championships, however, they lost too much time on Porschnew / Lasarew in the first run, which they could not catch up with even with the best time in the second run. Another Russian couple won the bronze medal: Alexander Jegorow and Pyotr Popov .

Medal table

space	country	gold	silver	bronze	total
1.	Russia	2	-	1	3
2.	Austria	1	-	-	1
3.	Italy	-	3	2	5

Web links

• Website of the ASC Olang for the European Championship 2008 ( Memento from May 15, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
• Results on the website of the International Luge Federation