From St. Moritz, SUI
(January 18, 2024) – As they’ve done so many times over the course of the 2023/2024 IBSF Europe Cup season, the Germans dominated the two-man bobsled race with a sweep of the podium, this time in St. Moritz.
Max Illmann drove brakeman Henrik Proske to the lead by .3 over teammates Hans Peter Hanighoffer and Tim Becker after the first heat. Laurin Zern and Alex Schaller sat third after the first heat, with the Swiss team of Timo Rohner and Dusan Novakovic in fourth, only .01 out of medal contention.
On his home track Rohner put down a good second run, but was immediately bested by Zern. Hannighofer was next, and had the fastest run of the race to take the lead and put a bit of pressure on Illmann. However, Illmann would not be deterred. Illmann and Proske bettered their start by .07, and matched their first run downtime, which was enough to take victory by .14.
The win for Illmann was his second medal in as many EC two-man starts this season and seventh of his career. For Hannighofer, his silver was his fifth straight medal between two and four-man bobsled.
Zern took bronze, .46 out of the lead for his first medal of 2024.
Rohner took fourth, ahead of Alex Czudaj and Jörn Wenzel in fifth, while Czechia’s Matej Behounek and David Bures took sixth, their best finish ever in Europe Cup.
The top ten was filled out by Lichtenstein’s Martin Kranz in seventh, his best finish in EC two-man competition, with Great Britain’s John Stanbridge in eighth. Kris Horn made his Europe Cup debut as a pilot and finished ninth, while Kilian Rohn made his EC debut in tenth.
Great Britain’s Adam Baird slid up to 11th from 14th in the first heat, while Joshua Hudson finished 17th to round out the British effort.
Geoff Gadbois finished 12th on the strength of two strong starts by he and Bryce Cheek.
With one race left in the two-man bobsled Europe Cup season, Alex Czudaj leads Hans Peter Hannighofer by just four points, with Laurin Zern only 42 points out of the lead. Timo Rohner sits fourth, just 48 points out of first. John Stanbridge is fifth.
Results:
| Pos | Name | Nation | Bib | Start 1 | Start 2 | Run 1 | Run 2 | Finish |
| 1 | Illmann / Proske | GER | 25 | 5.29 | 5.22 | 67.67 | 67.67 | 2:15.34 |
| 2 | Hannighofer / Becker | GER | 11 | 5.21 | 5.15 | 67.97 | 67.51 | 2:15.48 |
| 3 | Zern / Schaller | GER | 10 | 5.26 | 5.19 | 68.05 | 67.75 | 2:15.80 |
| 4 | Rohner / Novakovic | SUI | 13 | 5.32 | 5.37 | 68.06 | 68.02 | 2:16.08 |
| 5 | Czudaj / Wenzel | GER | 9 | 5.24 | 5.18 | 68.55 | 67.90 | 2:16.45 |
| 6 | Behounek / Bures | CZE | 18 | 5.29 | 5.27 | 68.48 | 68.17 | 2:16.65 |
| 7 | Kranz / Lenherr | LIE | 17 | 5.49 | 5.45 | 68.49 | 68.48 | 2:16.97 |
| 8 | Stanbridge / Hullah | GBR | 5 | 5.33 | 5.31 | 68.64 | 68.55 | 2:17.19 |
| 9 | Horn / Johnson | USA | 12 | 5.18 | 5.18 | 68.73 | 68.54 | 2:17.27 |
| 10 | Rohn / Toure | SUI | 30 | 5.49 | 5.50 | 68.51 | 68.79 | 2:17.30 |
| 11 | Baird / Williams | GBR | 6 | 5.34 | 5.33 | 68.90 | 68.45 | 2:17.35 |
| 12 | Gadbois / Cheek | USA | 15 | 5.28 | 5.27 | 68.82 | 68.77 | 2:17.59 |
| 13 | Reich / Eichenberger | SUI | 29 | 5.45 | 5.43 | 68.78 | 69.21 | 2:17.99 |
| 14 | Mandlbauer / Wiener | AUT | 7 | 5.34 | 5.32 | 69.20 | 68.88 | 2:18.08 |
| 15 | Scherrer / Grüninger | SUI | 31 | 5.53 | 5.55 | 68.97 | 69.15 | 2:18.12 |
| 16 | Kaiser / Volgger | AUT | 22 | 5.37 | 5.38 | 68.88 | 69.26 | 2:18.14 |
| 17 | Hudson / Kay | GBR | 20 | 5.34 | 5.45 | 68.93 | 69.23 | 2:18.16 |
| 18 | Prochazka / Fomenko | CZE | 23 | 5.34 | 5.38 | 69.13 | 69.18 | 2:18.31 |
| 19 | Wesselink / Franjic | NED | 8 | 5.24 | 5.30 | 69.39 | 68.96 | 2:18.35 |
| 20 | Shinohara / Kato | JPN | 27 | 5.35 | 5.34 | 69.48 | 69.40 | 2:18.88 |
| 21 | Nica / Oleinic | ROU | 19 | 5.40 | 69.62 | |||
| 22 | Turea / Dumitrache | ROU | 14 | 5.56 | 69.66 | |||
| 22 | Takeuchi / Hanyuda | JPN | 28 | 5.51 | 69.66 | |||
| 24 | Verginer / Ragazzi | ITA | 4 | 5.38 | 69.68 | |||
| 25 | Baechler / Alais | FRA | 24 | 5.50 | 69.72 | |||
| 26 | Matsuoka / Okuno | JPN | 32 | 5.33 | 69.81 | |||
| 27 | Silic / Starek | CRO | 26 | 5.63 | 69.91 | |||
| 28 | Sienkiewicz / Boinski | POL | 1 | 5.62 | 70.93 | |||
| 29 | Hanschitz / Ogbevoen | AUT | 2 | 5.46 | 71.60 | |||
| 30 | Spiliopoulos / Halevi | ISR | 16 | 6.51 | 74.51 | |||
| DNS | Sobczyk / Kaminski | POL | 21 | DNS | ||||
| DSQ | Boron / Buba | POL | 3 | 5.43 | DSQ |
