From Igls, AUT
(December 20, 2024) – Max Illmann and his team took gold in the first round of the 2024/2025 IBSF Europe Cup four-man season, finishing ahead of teammate Hans Peter Hannighofer for top honors.
Illman’s team of Felix Dahms, Eric Struß and Lukas Fritz gave him a start time that was the quickest of the first heat and the German slid to the lead with a time that only Dave Wesselink could get within a quarter of a second of.
In the second heat, Hannighofer took the lead and out-slid Dave Wesselink to hold onto it with only Illman to go.
Illmann’s crew was slightly slower in their second start, and while Illmann wasn’t able to pilot their sled quicker than Hannighofer, he had enough in the bank to win by a decisive .24 over his teammate.
The win for Illmann was his first on the Europe Cup tour since Lillehammer in the 2022/2023 season. For Hannighofer, the silver broke a streak of six straight gold medals in the discipline.
Wesselink took third to win his first career medal.
German rookie Tobias Dostthaler continued a strong start to the season with a fourth place finish, while Austria’s Jakob Mandlbauer finished fifth.
American pilots Geoff Gadbois and Kris Horn tied for sixth. Gadbois’s squad gave him a pair of top ten starts, while Horn’s had two solidly in the top five on their way to sixth.
Missing out on the top six in his first four-man start since World Championships in St. Moritz was a returning Romain Heinrich. His team also gave him two top six starts on Heinrich’s way to an eighth place finish.
Results:
| Pos | Names | Nation | Bib | Start 1 | Start 2 | Run 1 | Run 2 | Finish |
| 1 | Illmann / Dahms / Strauß / Frytz | GER | 8 | 5.09 | 5.12 | 51.05 | 51.16 | 1:42.21 |
| 2 | Hannighofer / Schenk / Bosse / Becker | GER | 13 | 5.09 | 5.10 | 51.35 | 51.14 | 1:42.49 |
| 3 | Wesselink / Huis in ‘t Veld / Franjic / Franjic | NED | 12 | 5.09 | 5.07 | 51.30 | 51.37 | 1:42.49 |
| 4 | Dostthaler / Büthe / Maywald / Kocevar | GER | 20 | 5.22 | 5.26 | 51.40 | 51.53 | 1:42.93 |
| 5 | Mandlbauer / Hanschitz / Zech / Bertschler | AUT | 4 | 5.20 | 5.17 | 51.59 | 51.47 | 1:43.06 |
| 6 | Gadbois / Adams / Niederhofer / Cheek | USA | 5 | 5.20 | 5.23 | 51.47 | 51.64 | 1:43.11 |
| 6 | Horn / Williamson / Powell / Christofferson | USA | 11 | 5.12 | 5.17 | 51.56 | 51.55 | 1:43.11 |
| 8 | Heinrich / Lefebvre / Hauterville / Laporal | FRA | 7 | 5.17 | 5.18 | 51.51 | 51.64 | 1:43.15 |
| 9 | Bollmann / Reuter / Barchewitz / Röder | GER | 19 | 5.17 | 5.18 | 51.59 | 51.67 | 1:43.26 |
| 10 | Prochazka / Bures / Havelka / Petrikovic | CZE | 3 | 5.24 | 5.19 | 51.67 | 51.72 | 1:43.39 |
| 11 | Chi / Ding / Zhang / Xie | CHN | 21 | 5.18 | 5.20 | 51.90 | 51.72 | 1:43.62 |
| 12 | Scherrer / Grünniger / Leutwyler / Wey | SUI | 14 | 5.31 | 5.32 | 52.02 | 51.91 | 1:43.93 |
| 13 | Grantins / Ungurs / Kaufmanis / Gulbis | LAT | 18 | 5.27 | 5.28 | 52.27 | 51.85 | 1:44.12 |
| 14 | Baechler / Adoui / Novakovic / Alais | FRA | 15 | 5.32 | 5.36 | 52.14 | 52.10 | 1:44.24 |
| 15 | Reich / Koeferli / Ndiaye / Eichenberger | SUI | 1 | 5.27 | 5.27 | 52.14 | 52.11 | 1:44.25 |
| 16 | Verginer / Storti / Obou / Lambrughi | ITA | 10 | 5.29 | 5.33 | 52.07 | 52.28 | 1:44.35 |
| 17 | Brown / John / Williams / John | TTO | 6 | 5.43 | 5.39 | 52.30 | 52.30 | 1:44.60 |
| 18 | Silic / Rusnjak / Zelic / Zlatnar | CRO | 2 | 5.96 | 5.88 | 53.61 | 53.43 | 1:47.04 |
| 19 | Zakrzewski / Boinski / Bosna / Buba | POL | 17 | 5.86 | 5.80 | 54.13 | 53.58 | 1:47.71 |
| 20 | Bangiev / Bryer / Parizov / Yosifov | BUL | 16 | 7.36 | 7.61 | 60.46 | 60.66 | 2:01.12 |
| DSQ | Baird / Milward / Butterworth / Cartagena | GBR | 9 | 5.23 | DSQ |