From St. Moritz, SUI
(January 28, 2023) – Johannes Lochner came from behind after the first heat to take the lead at halftime in the IBSF World Championships for two-man bobsled, but has a slew of sliders behind him battling for medals as the event prepares for its second day of competition.
Lochner trailed Switzerland’s Michael Vogt after the first run. On their second trip down the historic track, Lochner and Fleischhauer set the season’s start record and had the quickest split at every interval on their way to a season’s best 1:05.22 to take the lead with only Vogt to go.
The Swiss pilot, who’s been so close to gold so many times before, had a good start with Sandro Michel but couldn’t quite match his first effort. As he crossed the line, Vogt found himself in third, only .07 behind Francesco Friedrich, who is .32 behind Lochner after two runs.
After his run, Lochner said he was confident going into the second day of sliding.
“Made a few mistakes in the first run,” Lochner said. “I turned it all off on the second run. Both of us aren’t nervous before tomorrow.”
Friedrich and Alexander Schüller had the third best start time in each heat, their best starts together since Friedrich’s injury, and that helped get them to second overnight.
“For now we’re satisfied that my leg is holding up after the muscle tear. We have to see what is still possible for tomorrow.”
Great Britain’s Brad Hall had the third quickest run in the second heat, and that was enough for fourth place overnight, only .09 out of the medals.
Christoph Hafer had a strong second run to hang onto fifth place and close the gap to .15 between he and Vogt. Latvia’s Emils Cipulis had a good second run as well, enough to move into the top six from eighth after the first heat.
It was a tough go of it for the North American men on Saturday. Frank Del Duca led the way for the United States in 18th place, one spot ahead of Canada’s Pat Norton in 19th. Geoff Gadbois had a good second run to move up from 23rd in the first heat to finish the day in 20th place.
Taylor Austin had trouble out of Horseshoe on his second run, crashed, and did not finish. He joined Croatia’s Drazen Silic and Germany’s Adam Ammour as pilots who crashed in almost the identical spot.
Results:
| Pos | Names | Nation | Bib | Start 1 | Start 2 | Run 1 | Run 2 | Total |
| 1 | Lochner / Fleischhauer | GER | 10 | 5.03 | 5.02 | 65.69 | 65.22 | 2:10.91 |
| 2 | Friedrich / Schüller | GER | 9 | 5.06 | 5.06 | 65.78 | 65.45 | 2:11.23 |
| 3 | Vogt / Michel | SUI | 7 | 5.09 | 5.11 | 65.62 | 65.68 | 2:11.30 |
| 4 | Hall / Lawrence | GBR | 8 | 5.05 | 5.05 | 65.82 | 65.57 | 2:11.39 |
| 5 | Hafer / Sommer | GER | 6 | 5.22 | 5.20 | 65.88 | 65.57 | 2:11.45 |
| 6 | Cipulis / Miknis | LAT | 2 | 5.13 | 5.09 | 66.22 | 65.65 | 2:11.87 |
| 7 | Heinrcih / Hauterville | FRA | 22 | 5.19 | 5.19 | 66.01 | 65.92 | 2:11.93 |
| 8 | Rohner / Rolli | SUI | 1 | 5.16 | 5.14 | 66.28 | 65.87 | 2:12.15 |
| 9 | Baumgartner / Fantazzini | ITA | 12 | 5.24 | 5.27 | 66.21 | 66.08 | 2:02.29 |
| 10 | Treichl / Sammer | AUT | 5 | 5.13 | 5.14 | 66.36 | 66.08 | 2:12.44 |
| 11 | Friedli / Haas | SUI | 4 | 5.17 | 5.31 | 66.22 | 66.34 | 2:12.56 |
| 12 | Tentea / Daroczi | ROU | 15 | 5.21 | 5.19 | 66.50 | 66.14 | 2:12.64 |
| 13 | Li / Ding | CHN | 18 | 5.23 | 5.21 | 66.51 | 66.37 | 2:12.88 |
| 14 | Vain / Riou | MON | 26 | 5.14 | 5.12 | 66.59 | 66.35 | 2:12.94 |
| 15 | Dobes / Prochazka | CZE | 13 | 5.23 | 5.21 | 66.56 | 66.45 | 2:13.01 |
| 16 | Kalenda / Springis | LAT | 21 | 5.13 | 5.14 | 66.51 | 66.55 | 2:13.06 |
| 17 | Kim / Park | KOR | 17 | 5.19 | 5.23 | 66.65 | 66.49 | 2:13.14 |
| 18 | Del Duca / Abdul-Saboor | USA | 11 | 5.16 | 5.19 | 66.94 | 66.65 | 2:13.59 |
| 19 | Norton / Gray | CAN | 19 | 5.28 | 5.28 | 66.86 | 66.84 | 2:13.70 |
| 20 | Gadbois / Christofferson | USA | 20 | 5.24 | 5.27 | 67.07 | 66.66 | 2:13.73 |
| 21 | Boron / Sosna | POL | 25 | 5.27 | 5.31 | 67.06 | 66.96 | 2:14.02 |
| 21 | Variola / Obou | ITA | 16 | 5.15 | 5.17 | 67.09 | 66.93 | 2:14.02 |
| 23 | Behounek / Zalesky | CZE | 24 | 5.23 | 5.24 | 66.86 | 67.30 | 2:14.16 |
| 24 | Kranz / Lenherr | LIE | 29 | 5.45 | 5.47 | 67.20 | 67.18 | 2:14.38 |
| 25 | Mandlbauer / Nichols-Bardi | AUT | 30 | 5.29 | 5.22 | 67.19 | 67.23 | 2:14.42 |
| 26 | Brown / John | TTO | 23 | 5.30 | 5.39 | 67.14 | 67.32 | 2:14.46 |
| 27 | Nica / Calencea | ROU | 27 | 5.45 | 5.44 | 67.94 | 67.62 | 2:15.56 |
| DNF | Austin / Murray-Law | CAN | 3 | 5.31 | 5.31 | 66.96 | DNF | |
| DNF | Silic / Starek | CRO | 28 | 5.47 | DNF | |||
| DNF | Ammour / Hertel | GER | 14 | 5.06 | DNF |
