From Winterberg, GER
(March 2, 2024) – Francesco Friedrich is once again in the lead of a four-man bobsled World Championships and is on the hunt for his sixth straight four-man world title.
In his 100th top tier four-man bobsled race, Friedrich broke the track record (held previously by former teammate Nico Walther) in his first run to set the time to beat from the first starting spot. Second off the top was teammate Johannes Lochner, who was also under Walther’s old track record but .17 behind Friedrich.
In the second heat Lochner threw down what looked to be about as clean of a run as anyone had seen all day to move into the lead. But that lead only lasted about two minutes, as Friedrich matched his first heat 5.00 start a and coupled with a quick but slightly bumpy second run to open up to a .27 second lead overnight.
Barring a major slipup by Friedrich and Lochner, the closest battle for a medal on Sunday will be for bronze. Adam Ammour rounds out a provisional German sweep after two heats, but isn.75 back behind Friedrich and only ahead of Latvia’s Emils Cipulis by .05 going into the third run.
Cipulis is fourth, a tenth ahead of Markus Treichl in fifth.
Brad Hall, one half of the 2023 World Championships co-silver medalists, had a late start draw and slid into eighth place after the first heat. With more equal ice with the teams around him, Hall was able to drive into sixth place after two runs.
Italy’s Patrick Baumgartner, China’s Kaizhi Sun, Swiss pilot Simon Frieldi, and China’s Chunjian Li around out the top ten.
The Canadian team, led by Austin Taylor, finished the day in 12th place after a pair of clean runs in Taylor’s second look at Winterberg in a four-man sled. Taylor had finished the first heat in 16th but had the second quickest run of the lower 12 sleds in the rankings to shoot up the order.
Frank Del Duca’s team gave him a top ten start in the first heat, but slower ice in that run left the Americans bcak in 18th place. Del Duca’s second drive was the fifth quickest of the heat and enough to move the Americans up to 14th at the halfway point of the race.
Great Britain’s Adam Baird had a pair of clean slides but couldn’t quite find the speed he needed in the second heat and finished the day in 19th.
Standings After Two Runs:
| Pos | Names | Nation | Bib | Start 1 | Start 2 | Run 1 | Run 2 | Total |
| 1 | Friedrich / Margis / Schüller / Straub | GER | 1 | 5.00 | 5.00 | 53.12 | 54.06 | 1:47.18 |
| 2 | Lochner / Bauer / Bruckert / Fleischhauer | GER | 3 | 5.00 | 5.03 | 53.29 | 54.16 | 1:47.45 |
| 3 | Ammour / Ammour / Hertel / Schenk | GER | 11 | 5.05 | 5.04 | 53.70 | 54.23 | 1:47.93 |
| 4 | Cipulis / Springis / Miknis / Lindenblats | LAT | 2 | 5.06 | 5.04 | 53.58 | 54.40 | 1:47.98 |
| 5 | Treichl / Stepan / Sammer / Huber | AUT | 7 | 5.08 | 5.07 | 53.73 | 54.35 | 1:48.08 |
| 6 | Hall / Greenwood / Lawrence / Cackett | GBR | 17 | 5.07 | 5.06 | 53.92 | 54.26 | 1:48.18 |
| 7 | Baumgartner / Fantazzini / Mircea / Bilotti | ITA | 5 | 5.13 | 5.12 | 53.81 | 54.43 | 1:48.24 |
| 8 | Sun / Ding / Ye / Ding | CHN | 8 | 5.17 | 5.18 | 53.98 | 54.65 | 1:48.63 |
| 9 | Friedli / Schläpfer / Rolli / Haas | SUI | 4 | 5.10 | 5.09 | 53.85 | 54.84 | 1:48.69 |
| 10 | Li / Wei / Zhu / Zhen | CHN | 10 | 5.19 | 5.20 | 54.16 | 54.56 | 1:48.72 |
| 11 | Follador / Vögele / Hufschmid / Jones | SUI | 6 | 5.19 | 5.18 | 53.99 | 54.76 | 1:48.75 |
| 12 | Austin / McEwan / Couturier / Murray-Lawrence | CAN | 20 | 5.26 | 5.29 | 54.52 | 54.37 | 1:48.89 |
| 13 | Mandlbauer / Hanschitz / Nichols-Bardi / Zech | AUT | 14 | 5.25 | 5.21 | 54.45 | 54.51 | 1:48.96 |
| 14 | Del Duca / Adams / Mitchell / Abdul-Saboor | USA | 22 | 5.14 | 5.15 | 54.64 | 54.34 | 1:48.98 |
| 15 | Rohner / Mariani / Hersperger/ Jullard | SUI | 13 | 5.22 | 5.22 | 54.20 | 54.80 | 1:49.00 |
| 16 | Wesselink / Franjic / Franjic / Huis in ‘t Veld | NED | 16 | 5.14 | 5.14 | 54.44 | 54.70 | 1:49.14 |
| 17 | Behounek / Dobes / Bures / Wijas | CZE | 15 | 5.20 | 5.19 | 54.66 | 54.50 | 1:49.16 |
| 18 | Baird / Hullah / Milward / Dixon | GBR | 21 | 5.27 | 5.30 | 54.57 | 54.77 | 1:49.34 |
| 19 | Variola / Batti / Ceresatto / Obou | ITA | 18 | 5.21 | 5.20 | 54.91 | 54.45 | 1:49.36 |
| 20 | Kalenda / Ungurs / Kaufmanis / Klava | LAT | 9 | 5.17 | 5.13 | 54.01 | 55.88 | 1:49.89 |
| 21 | Kranz / Tschofen / Lenherr / Bertschler | LIE | 23 | 5.40 | 5.39 | 55.22 | 54.94 | 1:50.16 |
| 22 | Boron / Sienkiewicz / Sosna / Boinski | POL | 19 | 5.29 | 5.45 | 55.31 | 55.67 | 1:50.98 |
| DNS | Tentea / Dinescu / Pacioianu / Iordache | ROU | 12 | DNS |