From Altenberg, GER
(February 17, 2024) – Adam Ammour slid to his second straight two-man bobsled gold medal on the IBSF World Cup season as he edged out Francesco Friedrich in Altenberg.
Ammour and brakeman Costa Laurenz set the quick start of the first heat but trailed Friedrich by .06 after their first run on another relatively warm day.
In the second heat Ammour and Laurenz pushed another tenth quicker, within .08 of the start record set by Justin Kripps and Alex Kopacz of Canada and slid to the heat-quickest downtime to take the lead from South Korea’s Jinsu Kim.
In a position that Friedrich has been in so many times before, he and Thorsten Margis pushed off as the leader in the second heat. The duo were .05 quicker off the top, and while Friedrich had a clean drive, the speed just wasn’t there. His downtime was .24 slower than Ammour’s, which gave Ammour a .18 second victory over Friedrich.
The gold for for Ammour was his fourth medal in the last five races. For Friedrich and Margis, the silver was their 48th medal as a team.
Bronze went to Kim. He and brakeman Hyeonggeun Kim had top five pushes in both heats, and a pair of great drives to give South Korea its first World Cup medal in bobsled since the December 2016 when Yunjong Won and Youngwoo Seo took bronze in Whistler.
Switzerland’s Cedric Follador slid to a career-best finish fourth place finish with Luca Rolli on his brakes.
Latvia’s Emil Cipulis and Matiss Miknis tied Friedrich and Margis’s start time in the second heat on their way to a fifth place finish, while Germany’s Christoph Hafer made his return to the World Cup with a sixth place finish alongside Matthias Sommer.
Frank Del Duca and Manteo Mitchell had top five starts in both heats on their way to an eighth place finish for the United States. The first drive was a little bumpy for Del Duca, but the second was cleaned up nicely to secure the top ten.
Del Duca’s teammates Kris Horn and Darius Joseph had a big start, .06 off the fastest push of the first heat, but there was trouble loading in the sled. Horn’s sled hit the wall with the push bar out, which jammed the push bar and left it out. That caused some issues on the run, and Horn missed the second heat and eventually finished 20th.
Canada’s Taylor Austin moved up from 16th to 15th in the second heat in his return to World Cup action alongside DeVaughn McEwan.
With one race to go in the IBSF World Cup season, Francesco Friedrich leads Johannes Lochner by 148 points. Michael Vogt is still third, with Adam Ammour and Emils Cipulis rounding out the top five.
Results:
| Pos | Names | Nation | Bib | Start 1 | Start 2 | Run 1 | Run 2 | Total |
| 1 | Ammour / Laurenz | GER | 7 | 5.20 | 5.19 | 55.71 | 55.70 | 1:51.41 |
| 2 | Friedrich / Margis | GER | 8 | 5.25 | 5.20 | 55.65 | 55.94 | 1:51.59 |
| 3 | Kim / Kim | KOR | 3 | 5.21 | 5.23 | 55.93 | 56.09 | 1:52.02 |
| 4 | Follador / Rolli | SUI | 10 | 5.31 | 5.32 | 56.09 | 56.13 | 1:52.22 |
| 5 | Cipulis / Miknis | LAT | 4 | 5.26 | 5.20 | 56.02 | 56.29 | 1:52.31 |
| 6 | Hafer / Sommer | GER | 22 | 5.34 | 5.33 | 56.31 | 56.05 | 1:52.36 |
| 7 | Treichl / Sammer | AUT | 12 | 5.33 | 5.31 | 56.26 | 56.21 | 1:52.47 |
| 8 | Del Duca / Mitchell | USA | 9 | 5.24 | 5.23 | 56.32 | 56.25 | 1:52.57 |
| 9 | Baumgartner / Mircea | ITA | 13 | 5.30 | 5.30 | 56.33 | 56.26 | 1:52.59 |
| 10 | Friedli / Schläpfer | SUI | 11 | 5.37 | 5.38 | 56.36 | 56.31 | 1:52.67 |
| 11 | Tentea / Iordache | ROU | 15 | 5.37 | 5.37 | 56.49 | 56.21 | 1:52.70 |
| 12 | Li / Ding | CHN | 6 | 5.36 | 5.37 | 56.47 | 56.77 | 1:53.24 |
| 13 | Sun / Zhen | CAN | 14 | 5.34 | 5.33 | 56.85 | 56.46 | 1:53.31 |
| 14 | Behounek / Zalesky | CZE | 18 | 5.37 | 5.34 | 57.23 | 56.54 | 1:53.77 |
| 15 | Austin / McEwan | CAN | 1 | 5.55 | 5.58 | 57.18 | 56.66 | 1:53.84 |
| 16 | Kranz / Lenherr | LIE | 21 | 5.66 | 5.63 | 57.69 | 56.62 | 1:54.31 |
| 17 | Dobes / Wijas | CZE | 20 | 5.34 | 5.37 | 57.54 | 56.78 | 1:54.32 |
| 18 | Prochazka / Vila | CZE | 2 | 5.42 | 5.47 | 57.14 | 57.43 | 1:54.57 |
| 19 | Mandlbauer / Nichols-Bardi | AUT | 17 | 5.38 | 5.38 | 57.44 | 62.62 | 2:00.06 |
| 20 | Horn / Joseph | USA | 16 | 5.26 | 58.04 | |||
| DSQ | Klenda / Ungurs | LAT | 5 | 5.35 | DSQ | |||
| DNF | Variola / Batti | ITA | 19 | 5.33 | 5.32 | 57.07 | DNF |
