Lochner Beats Friedrich in St. Moritz

From St. Moritz, SUI

(January 14, 2024) -A year after one semi-bad run kept him a position short of a four-man bobsled podium in the IBSF World Championships in St. Moritz, Johannes Lochner slid to victory with two runs that weren’t perfect, but were good enough for gold.

Lochner and teammate Francesco Friedrich sat one-two after the first heat, separated by only .o4, but neither had put down what would be considered a clean run in that first run. The duo had World Championships co-silver medalists Brad Hall and Emils Cipulis both in their mirror, with Hall only .12 out of the lead.

In the second heat Cipulis threw down the kind of run that won him a sliver medal a year prior. Hall’s second effort was decent, but an early skid on the long, long start straights and a hard hit out of the famous Horseshoe curve was enough to drop Hall out of medal contention and into what would eventually be sixth.

Friedrich took to the ice next. As he had in the first run, Friedrich put down what was an otherwise quick run but skiddy and bumpy enough to leave the door open for Lochner.

Lochner’s team gave him the fastest start of the year on the track in St. Moritz, and the only start below five seconds. Again, Lochner’s drive was not perfect, and for a brief moment he and his team were behind Friedrich. Lochner rallied late in his run, and in the final few curves where many others had struggled throughout the weekend Lochner was clean, and he took gold by a tenth of a second over Friedrich, with Friedrich second and Cipulis third.

Lochner’s victory was the 12th of his career in four-man bobsled, and 72nd World Cup medal overall between two and four-man bobsled. Friedrich’s silver gave him 125 World Cup medals in his career.

For Cipulis, the youngest pilot on the podium, his bronze was the second on the season for he and Latvia.

Switzerland was kept off the podium on their home track, but did take fourth, fifth, and seventh with some good runs between them. Michael Vogt took fourth place, .07 ahead of teammate Simon Friedli. Friedli, whose team gave him the third quickest push in each heat, moved up from seventh to take fifth. Cedric Follador finished seventh to round out the Swiss effort.

Brad Hall’s sixth place finish, while not enough to score a medal, was still an outstanding finish for a pilot and team who collectively has been injured for the better part of the season.

Frank Del Duca had a strong eighth place first run, but had a bumpy second run and fell to 13th for the United States, his best result in St. Moritz as a pilot. Teammate Geoff Gadbois finished three spots back in 16th.

Five races into the IBSF World Cup four-man bobsled season, Johannes Lochner leads Francesco Friedrich by 25 points. Emils Cipulis is third, ahead of a trio of Swiss pilots in Michael Vogt, Cedric Follador, and Simon Friedli.

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