Elvira Holzknecht

Elvira woodcutter ( born September 27, 1973) is a former Austrian Naturbahnrodlerin. She was twice European Junior Champion and won four silver and three bronze medals at world and European championships. In the World Cup, she was with three overall wins and 16 victories in World Cup races, the most successful Naturbahnrodlerin the 1990s.

Career

The first international successes celebrated lumberjack at the Junior European Championships, where she attended from 1989 to 1992. After a fifth place in 1989 in Bruck an der Grossglockner road it was in 1990 and 1991 in Železniki Kandalakscha European Junior Champion. In 1992, she was ranked second in the rod. From 1992 she also took part in championships in the general class and there was an immediate success. At the World Cup 1992 in Bad Goisern, she won the silver medal at the European Championships in 1993 in Stein an der Enns the bronze medal. In the season 1992/1993 inaugural World Cup woodcutter was from the beginning among the best. She won the second World Cup race in Rautavaara, scored at the end of season two third places and ended the first World Cup season in third place overall. In 1993, woodcutter was first Austrian Champion in the single-seater, which she managed until 2000, four more times.

After they had remained in the 1993/1994 season without a World Cup podium and also at the 1994 World Cup in fifth place behind the medals, lumberjack won in the season 1994/ 1995, all four discharged World Cup race, which she won for the first time in the World Cup. In addition to the World Cup they won in 1995 for the last time discharged European Cup. At the European Championships in 1995 in Kandalakscha but she had to admit defeat her compatriot Irene Zechner and the Russian Lyubov Panjutina. In the World Cup season 1995/1996 woodcutter with two wins and a third place overall was third; in the 1996/1997 season she fell with a win, a second and a third place but back to fifth place overall. At the World Cup in 1996 and the European Championships in 1997 Oberperfuss moss in pass eggs she won the silver medal each.

In the 1997/1998 season woodcutter reached four wins in six races with which they won the World Cup for the second time. For this performance she was awarded the Silver Medal for Services to the Republic of Austria. Also in the 1998/1999 season she decided with two wins and two second places the overall standings for themselves, with only five points ahead of the Italian Sonja Steinacher. The next winter Steinacher get four World Cup victories, which they woodcutter, who won two races, second three times and third once was, and in all six races of the season on the podium went, directed by 15 points in second place in the overall World Cup. In the 1998 World Cup in Rautavaara woodcutter had only the fifth -ranked. At the European Championships in 1999 Szczyrk and the World Championship 2000 in Olang she won as second or third back two medals.

On 27 December 2000 Elvira woodcutter suffered in an elimination race in South Tyrol an open ankle fracture, which is why it turned out throughout the World Cup season 2000/2001. The next World Cup season began, still affected by her injury, with two seventh places. After that, she was able to improve with three placings in the top five again something; in the World Cup they finished sixth. At the 2002 European Championships in Frantschach - Sankt Gertraud she finished in seventh place, just as with their last major event of the 2003 World Cup in Železniki. At the first World Cup race of the season 2002/2003 woodcutter had been unable to participate because they had contracted with the skids of their toboggan a tendon injury on the hand. In the other five World Cup races of the winter they still went three times on the podium, which she finished fourth in the World Cup. After this winter wood servant ended her career.

Achievements

World Championships

  • Bad Goisern 1992 2 seater
  • Gsies 1994: 5 seater
  • Oberperfuss 1996: 2 seater
  • Rautavaara 1998: 5 seater
  • Olang 2000: 3 seater
  • Železniki 2003: 7 seater

European Championships

  • Stein an der Enns 1993: 3 seater
  • Kandalakscha 1995: 3 seater
  • Moos in Passeier 1997: 2 seater
  • Szczyrk 1999: 2 seater
  • Frantschach 2002: 7 seater

European Junior Championships

  • Bruck 1989: 5 seater
  • Železniki 1990: first single-seater
  • Kandalakscha 1991: first single-seater
  • Rod 1992 2 seater

World Cup

  • 3x overall World Cup victory in the seasons 1994/1995, 1997/1998 and 1998/1999
  • 1x 2nd place in the overall World Cup in the 1999/2000 season
  • 2x 3rd place in the overall World Cup in the seasons 1992/1993 and 1995/1996
  • 30 podiums including 16 victories:

* At the same time with Irene Zechner

Austrian Championships

  • Five times Austrian Champion in the single-seater (1993, 1996, 1998, 1999 and 2000 )

Awards

  • Silver Medal for Services to the Republic of Austria (1998)
FIL World Luge Natural Track Championships 1992 FIL World Luge Natural Track Championships 1996 FIL World Luge Natural Track Championships 2000 FIL European Luge Natural Track Championships 1993 FIL European Luge Natural Track Championships 1995 FIL European Luge Natural Track Championships 1997 FIL European Luge Natural Track Championships 1999 Kandalaksha FIL World Luge Natural Track Championships 1994 FIL World Luge Natural Track Championships 1998 FIL European Luge Natural Track Championships 2002 Frantschach-Sankt Gertraud Negaunee, Michigan Italy Finland Renate Gietl
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