From Igls, AUT
(Dec. 16, 2017) It’s been a tough start of the season for Francesco Friedrich, with the German only scoring one medal in a season he was expected to contend week in and week out.
Friedrich got things worked out for the first run in Igls, setting a time .11 ahead of anyone else. Behind him, Canada filled in the next three spots, all within .08 of each other. In fact, after the first run the difference from Justin Kripps in second back to Nico Walther in 13th was only .25.
Despite the pressure from a tight field behind him, Friedrich’s second run mirrored his first, pulling away from the Canadians and winning by .27 over the field for his first two-man gold in the 2017/2018 season.
Justin Kripps finished second in what was another great race for the Canadian men. Clemens Bracher continued a great start to his IBSF World Cup two-man career with a bronze medal after Canadian Nick Poloniato was disqualified for the back end of his sled being four millimeters too tight.
Johannes Lochner finished fourth, while Nick Cunningham finished fifth and Chris Spring sixth..
The United States continued to improve from some early-season issues. Codie Bascue moved up from eighth to seventh in his second run, while Justin Olsen finished just .23 out of a top 10 in 13th place.
Chris Spring fell out of the top six by .02, and out of a medal by .18, finishing seventh. British sliders Bradley Hall and Bruce Tasker finished 20th and 21st, respectively.
Results:
| Pos | Names | Nation | Bib | Start 1 | Start 2 | Run 1 | Run 2 | Total |
| 1 | Friedrich / Margis | GER | 6 | 5.03 | 4.99 | 51.89 | 51.82 | 1:43.71 |
| 2 | Kripps / Lumsden | CAN | 12 | 5.06 | 5.04 | 52.00 | 51.98 | 1:43.98 |
| 3 | Bracher / Kuonen | SUI | 18 | 5.10 | 5.10 | 52.09 | 52.02 | 1:44.11 |
| 4 | Lochner / Bluhm | GER | 19 | 5.08 | 5.05 | 52.12 | 52.04 | 1:44.16 |
| 5 | Cunningham / Abdul-Saboor | USA | 15 | 5.10 | 5.09 | 52.10 | 52.07 | 1:44.17 |
| 6 | Spring / Wright | CAN | 8 | 5.14 | 5.11 | 52.08 | 52.11 | 1:44.19 |
| 7 | Bascue / McGuffie | USA | 11 | 5.10 | 5.08 | 52.17 | 52.07 | 1:44.24 |
| 8 | Kibermanis / Miknis | LAT | 13 | 5.08 | 5.03 | 52.13 | 52.14 | 1:44.27 |
| 9 | Melbardis / Dreiskens | LAT | 16 | 5.08 | 5.10 | 52.18 | 52.11 | 1:44.29 |
| 10 | Maier / Sammer | AUT | 20 | 5.08 | 5.08 | 52.23 | 52.21 | 1:44.44 |
| 11 | Walther / Poser | GER | 9 | 5.13 | 5.11 | 52.25 | 52.24 | 1:44.49 |
| 12 | Dvorak / Nosek | CZE | 21 | 5.07 | 5.07 | 52.19 | 52.31 | 1:44.50 |
| 13 | Olsen / C. Fogt | USA | 10 | 5.09 | 5.09 | 52.29 | 52.23 | 1:44.52 |
| 14 | Heinrich / Lefebvre | FRA | 5 | 5.22 | 5.18 | 52.38 | 52.29 | 1:44.67 |
| 15 | Kasjanov / Pushkarev | RUS | 17 | 5.19 | 5.21 | 52.30 | 52.38 | 1:44.68 |
| 16 | Peter / Amrhein | SUI | 14 | 5.15 | 5.16 | 52.37 | 52.33 | 1:44.70 |
| 17 | Stulnev / Antukh | RUS | 23 | 5.22 | 5.21 | 52.37 | 52.36 | 1:44.73 |
| 17 | Treichl / Bassey | AUT | 2 | 5.17 | 5.17 | 52.31 | 52.42 | 1:44.73 |
| 19 | Hall / Gleeson | GBR | 4 | 5.10 | 5.10 | 52.37 | 52.51 | 1:44.88 |
| 20 | Tasker / Fearon | GBR | 3 | 5.12 | 52.39 | |||
| 21 | Andrianov / Mordasov | RUS | 1 | 5.20 | 52.41 | |||
| 22 | Luty / Tylkowski | POL | 24 | 5.19 | 52.47 | |||
| 23 | Rinaldi / Vain | MON | 22 | 5.25 | 52.52 | |||
| 24 | Zalims / Springis | LAT | 25 | 5.14 | 52.74 | |||
| DSQ | de Bruin / van der Zijde | NED | 26 | DSQ | ||||
| DSQ | Poloniato / Brown | CAN | 7 | DSQ |
