Lochner Sweeps Yanqing – Baumgartner Wins First Silver Medal

From Yanqing, CHN

(November 19, 2023) – Johannes Lochner continued his blazing start to the 2023/2024 IBSF World Cup season with another set of quick runs to win his third straight gold medal between two and four-man bobsled. Behind him, Patrick Baumgartner had the run of his career.

Lochner set the quick time of the first heat, a 58.22 that was just .09 off of the track record he set during the 2022 Olympics. Behind him sat Francesco Friedrich, only .03 back. Italy’s Baumgartner found himself in third after the first heat, only .13 out of the lead and .1 behind Friedrich.

On the second run Baumgartner’s team was a tick slower than their first run off the top. However, the Italian pilot put together another clean run in what what would be the best finish of his career. He crossed the finish line as the leader, well ahead of Latvia’s Emils Cipulis, who had entered the heat tied for sixth.

Friedrich was next, and for the second run in a row he was just a little off. Small skids that the Olympic and world champion usually avoids were there, and out of the Kreisel curve the speed eluded him. His second run was only the fifth quickest, and put him behind the Italian by .01 to guarantee a bronze for Friedrich and a silver for Baumgartner.

Lochner, the track record holder from the 2022 Olympic Games, put down another strong run to clinch the gold medal for the third time in as many races to start the season between two and four-man bobsled.

The gold was Lochner’s 11th in four-man bobsled, which gave him an even 30 medals in his career in the discipline.

Baumgartner’s silver was a career-best finish. He’d entered the day with three straight sixth place efforts dating back to the prior season. The medal was also Italy’s first in either two-man or four-man since Simone Bertazzo won two-man gold in the final race at Cesana in 2011.

Friedrich’s bronze was just his seventh in four-man bobsled. He now has as man silvers and bronzes in two-man and four-man as he does two-man gold medals (46).

Cipulis rallied from a tie for sixth in the first heat to finish fourth, edging out Switzerland’s Michael Vogt in fifth.

Kaizhi Sun, the previous day’s bronze medalist, couldn’t quite put together the same runs he had a day ago and finished sixth after entering the heat tied with Cipulis for that spot.

The IBSF World Cup continues on to La Plagne in three weeks, where the United States, Canada, and others will rejoin the tour.

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