From Altenberg, GER
Two of the fastest two-man sleds in 2014/2015 were the Latvian sled piloted by Oskars Melbardis and the German sled by Francesco Friedrich. Those two sleds were battling it out for gold in the opening weekend of the 2015/2016 World Cup edition.
Melbardis came into the second run as the leader, but Friedrich put the pressure on with a monster second run. Melbardis couldn’t keep up, and would have to settle for silver, as Friedrich took gold for the season opener.
Yunjong Won became the first ever Korean to medal in IBSF World Cup bobsled after leapfrogging Nico Walther to move from fourth to third in the second run. Walther and teammate Maxmilian Arndt tied for fourth, and Canadian Justin Kripps finished sixth.
It seems like it’s not a World Cup race in Germany until weather is a factor, and weather was definitely a factor in the first World Cup 2-man race in Altenberg. Snow picked up, seemed to get wetter at one point, and generally caused trouble throughout the field.
Aside from Justin Kripp’s race, it was a generally disappointing day for the North Americans. Steven Holcomb led the way for the United States in 12th after two very clean runs that just lacked any speed whatsoever. Teammate Nick Cunningham finished 19th after a bumpy first run. Canadian Chris Spring drove through what appeared to be a small snowbank on the track, and finished 21st as a result.
Lamin Deen was the fastest British sled tied for 14th with Simone Bertazzo (ITA), Olly Biddulph finished 23rd in his first World Cup visit to Altenberg.
Results:
| Pos | Names | Nation | Bib | Run 1 | Run 2 | Total |
| 1 | Friedrich / Margis | GER | 8 | 55.92 | 56.64 | 1:52.56 |
| 2 | Melbardis / Dreiskens | LAT | 2 | 55.80 | 57.22 | 1:53.02 |
| 3 | Won / Seo | KOR | 3 | 55.96 | 57.08 | 1:53.04 |
| 4 | Arndt / Kuske | GER | 19 | 56.20 | 57.03 | 1:53.23 |
| 4 | Walther / Poser | GER | 6 | 55.94 | 57.29 | 1:53.23 |
| 6 | Kripps / Kopacz | CAN | 1 | 56.13 | 57.50 | 1:53.63 |
| 7 | Peter / van der Zijde | SUI | 10 | 56.43 | 57.36 | 1:53.79 |
| 8 | Zalims / Dambis | LAT | 13 | 56.55 | 57.39 | 1:53.94 |
| 9 | Kibermanis / Lieboms | LAT | 11 | 56.53 | 57.45 | 1:53.98 |
| 10 | Kasjanov / Trunenkov | RUS | 4 | 56.30 | 57.69 | 1:53.99 |
| 11 | Hefti / Ferrari | SUI | 9 | 56.83 | 57.34 | 1:54.17 |
| 12 | Holcomb / McGuffie | USA | 5 | 56.58 | 57.71 | 1:54.29 |
| 13 | Kim / Jun | KOR | 18 | 56.77 | 57.62 | 1:54.39 |
| 14 | Deen / Fearon | GBR | 17 | 56.91 | 57.53 | 1:54.44 |
| 14 | Bertazzo / Costa | ITA | 15 | 56.82 | 57.62 | 1:54.44 |
| 16 | Andrianov / Antukh | RUS | 16 | 56.84 | 57.66 | 1:54.50 |
| 17 | Luty / Kossakowski | POL | 21 | 57.03 | 57.86 | 1:54.89 |
| 18 | Stulnev / Gnezdilov | RUS | 12 | 57.28 | 57.68 | 1:54.96 |
| 19 | Cunningham / Wickline | USA | 7 | 57.01 | 57.98 | 1:54.99 |
| 20 | Maier / Rangl | AUT | 20 | 57.35 | 58.00 | 1:55.35 |
| 21 | Spring / Plug | CAN | 14 | 57.44 | ||
| 22 | Vrba / Suchy | CZE | 22 | 57.61 | ||
| 23 | Biddulph / Smallin | GBR | 23 | 58.06 |
