From Winterberg, GER
(February 24, 2024) – In the 2023 IBSF World Championships, Francesco Friedrich had his seven race World Championships win streak snapped in two-man bobsled when he won a silver medal in St. Moritz.
A year later in Winterberg it looks like Friedrich is well on his way to his eighth victory.
Friedrich held the track record in Winterberg coming into the event with a 54.89 set in January of 2022. In the first heat of competition he and Alexander Schüller missed the start record (also held by Friedrich with Thorsten Margis, 2015) by a hundredth of a second but slid to a track record 54.67, just .06 ahead of teammates Adam and Issam Ammour.
In the second heat, with the Ammours in the lead, .3 ahead of defending champion Johannes Lochner, Friedrich put down an even quicker run, lowering the track record another .13 to a 54.54 for a combined 1:49.21.
Those two efforts leave Friedrich .22 ahead of Ammour after two heats, with Lochner a distant third, .52 back.
Lochner and brakeman Georg Fleischhauer were the only team to get within .05 of Friedrich’s starts, setting a 5.08 in the second heat.
Behind the three German teams there’s a nice race that’s shaped up for fourth. Brad Hall and Lawrence Taylor slid to fifth after the first hea, but put down a quick second run to move into fourth, just ahead of the United States’ Frank Del Duca and Manteo Mitchell.
Del Duca sits fifth, only .06 out of fourth, while Emils Cipulis and Matiss Miknis of Latvia are sixth, .33 behind the Americans.
Kris Horn and Hakeem Abdul-Saboor had a pair of strong pushes to finish the fist day of two-man in 14th place in Horn’s first World Championships as a pilot to round out the American two-sled effort.
Pat Norton and Mike Evelyn led the way for Canada at the halfway point of the race in 17th, up from a tie for 19th in the first heat. Taylor Austin and Shane Ohrt sit tied for 22nd with Lichtenstein’s Martin Kranz and Martin Bertschler.
John Stanbridge and Jens Hullah are 24th after two runs in Stanbridge’s first World Championships in the front seat.
Standings After Two Heats:
| Pos | Names | Nation | Bib | Run 1 | Run 2 | Run 1 | Run 2 | Total |
| 1 | Friedrich / Schüller | GER | 1 | 5.06 | 5.06 | 54.67 | 54.54 | 1:49.21 |
| 2 | Ammour / Ammour | GER | 3 | 5.11 | 5.11 | 54.73 | 54.70 | 1:49.43 |
| 3 | Lochner / Flesichhauer | GER | 2 | 5.13 | 5.08 | 54.92 | 54.81 | 1:49.73 |
| 4 | Hall / Lawrence | GBR | 16 | 5.12 | 5.12 | 55.10 | 54.90 | 1:50.00 |
| 5 | Del Duca / Mitchell | USA | 7 | 5.15 | 5.14 | 55.07 | 54.99 | 1:50.06 |
| 6 | Cipulis / Miknis | LAT | 4 | 5.16 | 5.12 | 55.25 | 55.14 | 1:50.39 |
| 7 | Vain / Riou | MON | 20 | 5.16 | 5.19 | 55.23 | 55.24 | 1:50.47 |
| 8 | Baumgartner / Mircea | ITA | 6 | 5.22 | 5.19 | 55.43 | 55.18 | 1:50.61 |
| 9 | Treichl / Stepan | AUT | 9 | 5.21 | 5.21 | 55.30 | 55.35 | 1:50.65 |
| 10 | Friedli / Haas | SUI | 5 | 5.21 | 5.22 | 55.53 | 55.30 | 1:50.83 |
| 11 | Follador / Rolli | SUI | 8 | 5.24 | 5.25 | 55.45 | 55.45 | 1:50.90 |
| 12 | Rohner / Jones | SUI | 14 | 5.27 | 5.24 | 55.58 | 55.35 | 1:50.93 |
| 13 | Tentea / Iordache | ROU | 12 | 5.26 | 5.29 | 55.48 | 55.49 | 1:50.97 |
| 14 | Horn / Abdul-Saboor | USA | 15 | 5.15 | 5.17 | 55.53 | 55.50 | 1:51.03 |
| 15 | Li / Zhen | CHN | 10 | 5.21 | 5.30 | 55.55 | 55.55 | 1:51.10 |
| 16 | Prochazka / Bures | CZE | 27 | 5.31 | 5.27 | 55.72 | 55.56 | 1:51.28 |
| 17 | Norton / Evelyn | CAN | 24 | 5.31 | 5.31 | 55.75 | 55.54 | 1:51.29 |
| 18 | Sun / Ye | CHN | 11 | 5.19 | 5.22 | 55.78 | 55.56 | 1:51.34 |
| 19 | Behounek / Wijas | CZE | 19 | 5.31 | 5.33 | 55.76 | 55.60 | 1:51.36 |
| 20 | Mandlbauer / Nichols-Bardi | AUT | 21 | 5.26 | 5.31 | 55.72 | 55.67 | 1:51.39 |
| 21 | Wesselink / Franjic | NED | 23 | 5.26 | 5.22 | 55.75 | 55.71 | 1:51.46 |
| 22 | Austin / Ohrt | CAN | 18 | 5.38 | 5.36 | 55.92 | 55.71 | 1:51.63 |
| 22 | Kranz / Bertschler | LIE | 22 | 5.38 | 5.39 | 55.88 | 55.75 | 1:51.63 |
| 24 | Stanbridge / Hullah | GBR | 17 | 5.34 | 5.36 | 55.86 | 55.91 | 1:51.77 |
| 25 | Boron / Sienkiewicz | POL | 26 | 5.28 | 5.30 | 55.95 | 55.89 | 1:51.84 |
| 26 | Variola / Batti | ITA | 25 | 5.25 | 5.25 | 56.07 | 55.98 | 1:52.05 |
| 27 | Sobczyk / Sosna | POL | 28 | 5.33 | 5.35 | 56.15 | 55.94 | 1:52.09 |
| 28 | Kalenda / Ungurs | LAT | 13 | 5.18 | 5.21 | 55.50 | 60.24 | 1:55.74 |