European Skeleton Championship 2008

The 14th European Skeleton Championship was held on January 18, 2008 on the Olympic ice rink by Cesana Pariol . It was held parallel to the fifth race of the 2007/08 World Cup .

As the EM was held during a World Cup, the World Cup rules applied to the race. A race took place on the track the day before. In the men's category, the Canadian Jon Montgomery won , in the women's category, the German Kerstin Jürgens . For the race, according to the regulations applicable during the season, the starting positions were assigned to different nations at certain quotas, which resulted from the successes of the previous year. For Europe this provided for the following quotas:

Men: Great Britain, Germany (3 each) Latvia, Russia, Austria, Switzerland, Netherlands (2 each) France, Italy, Croatia, Ireland (1 each)

Women: Germany (3) Great Britain, Switzerland, Russia (2 each) Norway, Italy, Latvia (1 each)

With this new regulation, there were far fewer athletes at the start of these continental championships than in previous years. The World Cup races were won by Zach Lund and Katie Uhlaender from the USA, the gold medals of the European Championships went to the runners-up in both men and women.

In addition, for the World Cup only the first 16 nations in the men's and the first 13 nations in the women's ranking are allowed to send athletes. In the context of the European Championship, the other nations can each have a starter compete, but they are only counted for the European Championship.

Men

space	athlete	country	Terms	time
1	Kristan Bromley (2)	United Kingdom	57.52 57.76	1: 55.28
2	Sebastian Haupt (4)	Germany	57.70 58.23	1: 55.93 +0.65
3	Adam Pengilly (5)	United Kingdom	57.99 58.30	1: 56.29 +1.01
4th	Anthony Sawyer (6)	United Kingdom	58.18 58.15	1: 56.33 +1.05
5	Martins Dukurs (7)	Latvia	57.98 58.38	1: 56.36 +1.08
6th	Florian Grassl (8)	Germany	57.92 58.46	1: 56.38 +1.10
7th	Alexander Tretyakov (12)	Russia	58.04 58.59	1: 56.63 +1.35
8th	Frank Rommel (14)	Germany	58.31 58.49	1: 56.80 +1.52
9	Tomass Dukurs (17)	Latvia	58.50 58.65	1: 57.15 +1.87
10	Markus Penz (18)	Austria	58.71 58.65	1: 57.36 +2.08
11	Stefan Mörker (19)	Switzerland	58.70 58.83	1: 57.53 +2.25
12	Alexander Mutowin (20)	Russia	58.62 59.11	1: 57.73 +2.45
13	Daniel Maechler (22)	Switzerland		59.12
14th	Matthias Guggenberger (23)	Austria		59.47
15th	Peter van Wees (24)	Netherlands		59.52
16	Maurizio Oioli (25)	Italy		1: 00.58
17th	Patrick Shannon (26)	Ireland		1: 00.72
18th	Erik Geerts (27)	Netherlands		1: 02.26

Date: January 18th, 2008
There were 27 athletes at the start, 18 of them who drove for the European title. There were nine fewer Europeans at the start than in the continental championships last year. For the second round, only the top 20 of the first round were allowed to compete, including 12 Europeans. The results in the World Cup ranking of the race are given in brackets. Croatia and France do not use their possible starting places.

The medal favorites were primarily the British drivers, who have had a strong season so far. In addition, Alexander Tretyakov and Martins Dukurs from Latvia were among the extended circle of title contenders. Markus Penz , who was always able to achieve good form at major events, and Daniel Mächler were also among the extended circle of medal contenders. The German starters showed, apart from the race of the previous day, a bad season, which means that, apart from perhaps Sebastian Haupt , they could not be counted among the medal contenders.

The best European after the first run was Kristan Bromley , who had already become European champion in 2004 and 2005. Surprisingly in second and third place was the German Haupt followed by Florian Grassl . After very good first runs, they were able to relegate Martins Dukurs and Adam Pengilly to the other places. Daniel Mächler and Matthias Guggenberger , who were eliminated after the first run , could not convince .

In the second run there were even greater upheavals in the field due to fluctuating performance and various driving errors. Bromley fell back to second place in the World Cup behind the American Zach Lund, but was still able to secure the title of European champion ahead of Sebastian Haupt, who showed some weaknesses in the second run, but defended his place confidently in the end. The bronze medal was won thanks to a good second run by Adam Pengilly, who benefited not least from a serious mistake by German Grassl, who fell back to sixth place. The good British result made Anthony Sawyer perfect in fourth place.

The British drivers were able to impressively underpin their dominance of the season in Europe. The German starters were able to make the previous rather bad season forget something. On the other hand, the performances of the Swiss and Austrian pilots were disappointing. Last year's surprise winner, Alexander Tretyakov, was only able to take seventh place in these championships.

Women

space	athlete	country	Terms	time
1	Anja Huber (2)	Germany	59.50 59.04	1: 58.54
2	Svetlana Trunowa (3)	Russia	59.19 59.42	1: 58.61 +0.07
3	Kerstin Juergens (4)	Germany	59.42 59.35	1: 58.77 +0.23
4th	Jessica Kilian (5)	Switzerland	59.42 59.52	1: 58.94 +0.40
5	Amy Williams (8)	United Kingdom	59.75 59.99	1: 59.74 +1.20
6th	Desirée Bjerke (11)	Norway	1: 00.02 1: 00.69	2: 00.71 +2.17
7th	Olga Korobkina (12)	Russia	1: 00.43 1: 00.48	2: 00.91 +2.37
8th	Joska Le Conté	Netherlands	1: 01.16 1: 00.30	2: 01.46 +2.92
9	Marion Trott (16)	Germany	1: 00.53 1: 01.07	2: 01.60 +3.06
10	Maggie Davies (20)	United Kingdom		1: 01.57
11	Undīne Vītola (21)	Latvia		1: 01.59
12	Barbara Hosch (23)	Switzerland		1: 02.30

Date: January 18, 2008
At the start were 23 athletes, eleven of them Europeans, who competed for the title of European Champion. This means that six fewer starters fought for the gold medal than in the previous year. Costanza Zanoletti from the host country Italy did not take part in the race. For the second run, only the best 19 starters of the first run, eight of whom were Europeans, were allowed to compete. The numbers in brackets indicate the placements of the World Cup race that was also ranked.

The German starter Kerstin Jürgens had won all the races she had contested on the Cesana Pariol track, including the World Cup race the day before. That's why she started the race as the favorite for the title. The circle of medal contenders also included Anja Huber , Jessica Kilian , Amy Williams and Maggie Davies .

Surprisingly, after the first round, Svetlana Trunowa , who had achieved her best result at the European Championships in the previous year in seventh place and who was eighth in the top ten in World Cup races, led. Behind them followed at the same time Jürgens and Kilian before Huber, who like several other athletes at the start had problems with a bad inrun lane.

In the second run, Huber was able to show an almost perfect drive and push past all European competitors. She relegated Trunowa, who was not quite able to cope with the tension and showed a not very clean run, to the silver rank with a superior running record. With her drive, Huber was also able to approach the victorious Katie Uhlaender within three hundredths of a second during the World Cup race. In the fight for third place, the more experienced Jürgens prevailed against the young Swiss Kilian.

Huber is the first woman who was not only able to defend her title, but also the first woman to become European champion for the second time. In doing so, she improved the already excellent record of the German women, who, apart from 2006, when Maya Pedersen-Bieri won the title, won all European championship titles.

Web links

• Result of the men's world cup
• Result of the women's world cup

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Le Conté is not included in the statistics on the official website of the FIBT, as it did not take part in the World Cup, but only in the European Championship.