Lochner Slides to St. Moritz Victory

From St. Moritz, SUI

(January 13, 2024) – Johannes Lochner and Georg Fleischhauer returned to the track where the duo won their first IBSF World Championships title and showed that a year later their form is just as good, if not better.

Lochner drove to a .12 second lead over teammate Francesco Friedrich, mirroring the finish from the previous year’s IBSF World Championships. Behind them, Switzerland’s Simon Friedli looked to score his first medal outside of Sigulda as a pilot, but had teammate Michael Vogt hot on his heels.

In the second heat Vogt, who has been fighting a back injury, bettered his start by .02 with Sandro Michel on his brakes. Vogt slid to a commanding lead with the top three still to go.

Friedli and Andreas Haas were next. Friedli’s drive looked to be good, but he couldn’t quite match the pace of his teammate and fell back to what would eventually be fourth.

Friedrich and Alex Schüller put down the quickest start of the competition in their second run. But like in the first heat, Friedrich had a couple of uncharacteristic mistakes late with a big skid in the second heat, that likely cost them a shot at the gold medal.

That left Lochner up top to drive to a gold medal. From the onset of his run, Lochner drove away from Friedrich, eventually winning by a quarter second over Friedrich and just over a half of a second over Vogt.

The gold was his third of the season and 14th of his World Cup two-man bobsled career.

Switzerland had a strong showing on their home ice. Outside of Vogt in the medals, Simon Friedli and put a second sled in the top four with a fourth place finish. Cedric Follador slid to a seventh place finish to put all three Swiss sleds in the top seven.

Latvia’s Emils Cipulis scored a fifth place finish on the track where he’d won co-silver in four-man bobsled with Davis Springis on his brakes. Germany’s Adam Ammour and Benedikt Hertel rounded out the top six in sixth place.

The United States’ Frank Del Duca and Adrian Adams finished 13th as the top American team. Despite both having been a part of USA Bobsled for a while, it was their first ever time teaming in a two-man.

Del Duca’s teammate Kris Horn made his World Cup debut as a pilot on a St. Moritz track he hadn’t seen until this season. A relatively clean run put he and Darius Joseph in 21st place, the first team out of the second heat.

After four races in the two-man bobsled season, Johannes Lochner leads Francesco Friedrich by 55 points, with Michael Vogt third, 21 back of Friedrich. Emils Cipulis and Simon Friedli round out the top five.

Results: