Cipulis, Friedrich Share Altenberg Four-Man Gold

From Altenberg, GER

(February 18, 2024) – Emils Cipulis has shown that he’s a top pilot on the IBSF World Cup tour, especially in four-man bobsled where he’s the reigning co-silver medalist alongside Brad Hall. On Sunday, he won his first career IBSF World Cup gold medal with a victory in Altenberg but once again had to share the honors, this time with the top pilot of all time.

Cipulis trailed Friedrich by by just .04 after the first heat, with the weekend’s two-man winner Adam Ammour only .13 back in third. But it was Swiss pilot Simon Friedli who first had to enter the medal conversation.

After a emotional weekend for the Swiss team due to a horrible crash involving their top team led by Michael Vogt that put brakeman Sandro Michel in the hospital.

The team led by Simon Friedli put down the third quickest start in the first heat, and trailed Ammour by .11 after the first run thanks to a good drive by Friedli. Their second run was even better: Faster off the top, and relatively quicker the whole way down to take the lead from Austria’s Markus Treichl. Ammour couldn’t respond, and a huge celebration amongst the Swiss team erupted as they were guaranteed a medal.

Cipulis was next off the top, and his team gave him a 5.09 start which he coupled with a heat-quickest run to move into the lead with just Friedrich to go.

Friedrich, winner of 30 World Cup four-man gold medals coming into the day, including four in Altenberg, pushed to within .02 of the start record on his second run, .01 slower than his team’s first effort. He had the quick split at every timing line down the track, but as he crossed the final timing eye he was in a dead heat with Cipulis to give both teams a gold medal.

For Friedrich, the gold was number 31 in his four-man World Cup career and 54th medal in the discipline. For Cipulis, the medal was his third on the season.

Ammour finished fourth, with Treichl fifth, and Patrick Baumgartner sixth.

Canada’s Taylor Austin crashed in the first heat, and while he did get a downtime he did not take a second run.

The field size shrank due to a myriad of issues over the training week. The biggest incident involved Michael Vogt and brakeman Sandro Michel, where Michel was struck by a sled returning down the track. Johannes Lochner crashed and hurt his neck in training, and Frank Del Duca’s team broke their sled in a crash. In protest of issues relating to safety protocols in Altenberg, Brad Hall’s team pulled out of the race.

With one race to go in the IBSF World Cup season, Francesco Friedrich leads Emils Cipulis, with Johannes Lochner third. Simon Friedli moves up to fourth, and Patrick Baumgartner fifth.

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