From Winterberg, GER
(January 5, 2025) – It had been a while since someone not from Germany won a four-man bobsled gold medal in Winterberg. How long? Nobody entered in the 2012/2013 season race that saw Alxander Zubkov take gold is sliding anymore. Over 12 years and 15 four-man races later it happeened again, with Brad Hall beating out Francesco Friedrich for gold.
Hall held a .13 second advantage over Friedrich after the first heat, with Adam Ammour in third, only .04 behind his German teammate.
The second heat saw Ammour take the lead after he edged out Italian Patrick Baumgartner by just .03. That lead held for roughly two minutes, as Friedrich’s squad gave him the quick push of the competition, and he put down what was to that point the fastest run of the heat on a slowing track.
Hall team was the final one off the top for the Winterberg World Cup stop. A second-fastest push was still .07 slower than Friedrich’s and enough to bring Hall all the way back to the German. But Hall was quicker through the bottom five curves and he pulled away late to win by .19, with Friedrich silver and Ammour bronze.
Hall’s gold was the fourth of his World Cup career and snapped a streak of five straight four-man wins in Winterberg for Friedrich.
For Friedrich, the silver medal was the 54th medal of his four-man World Cup career. Ammour’s bronze was his bronze.
Baumgartner missed out on his second medal in four-man World Cup action, but fourth place was his career-best finish in a full field World Cup race.
Swiss pilot Michael Vogt, out of action since his horrible crash in Altenberg during training, put down a big second run and rocketed up the timesheet from 12th in the first heat all the way to a fifth-place finish, tied for his best finish in Winterberg.
Germany’s Johannes Lochner rounded out the top six.
Frank Del Duca’s American squad gave him the third quickest start of the first heat, where he finished 13th. In the second heat Del Duca’s team was a tick slower off the start, but a second clean run moved him up to 12th place.
Taylor Austin and Pat Norton both made their first World Cup starts of the four-man season on Sunday for Canada. Austin finished 16th, while Norton finished 20th after crashing late in his second run.
Adam Baird made his third World Cup start in the four-man sled and finished tied for 17th with Dave Wesselink, up from 20th in his first heat.
Two races into the 2024/2025 IBSF World Cup four-man calendar, Francesco Friedrich leads Brad Hall in the standings. Adam Ammour is third, with Johannes Lochner and Markus Treichl fourth and fifth.
Results:
| Pos | Names | Nation | Bib | Start 1 | Start 2 | Run 1 | Run 2 | Total |
| 1 | Hall / Lawrence / Gulliver / Cackett | GBR | 7 | 5.09 | 5.10 | 53.82 | 54.25 | 1:48.07 |
| 2 | Friedrich / Wulff / Sommer / Straub | GER | 5 | 5.05 | 5.03 | 53.95 | 54.31 | 1:48.26 |
| 3 | Ammour / Hempel / Hertel / Schenk | GER | 4 | 5.17 | 5.15 | 53.99 | 54.56 | 1:48.55 |
| 4 | Baumgartner / Fantazzini / Mircea / Bilotti | ITA | 8 | 5.19 | 5.15 | 54.11 | 54.47 | 1:48.58 |
| 5 | Vogt / Schläpfer / Hufschmid / Haas | SUI | 22 | 5.21 | 5.22 | 54.35 | 54.42 | 1:48.77 |
| 6 | Lochner / Bruckert / Tasche / Bauer | GER | 10 | 5.15 | 5.13 | 54.18 | 54.61 | 1:48.79 |
| 7 | Treichl / Stepan / Mitterer / Huber | AUT | 6 | 5.13 | 5.12 | 54.20 | 54.64 | 1:48.84 |
| 8 | Follador / Mariani / Rolli / Juillard | SUI | 9 | 5.20 | 5.20 | 54.32 | 54.59 | 1:48.91 |
| 9 | Rohner / Jones / Annen / Hersperger | SUI | 13 | 5.27 | 5.27 | 54.47 | 54.54 | 1:49.01 |
| 10 | Li / Jiang / Shi / Zhen | CHN | 17 | 5.17 | 5.20 | 54.35 | 54.67 | 1:49.02 |
| 11 | Kalenda / Kaufmanis / Bebriss / Klava | LAT | 11 | 5.16 | 5.19 | 54.35 | 54.69 | 1:49.04 |
| 12 | Del Duca / Vissering / Volker / Gilbert | USA | 3 | 5.11 | 5.21 | 54.37 | 54.78 | 1:49.15 |
| 13 | Sun / Ding / Ye / An | CHN | 16 | 5.20 | 5.21 | 54.42 | 54.74 | 1:49.16 |
| 14 | Tentea / Dinescu / Pacioianu / Iordache | ROU | 12 | 5.23 | 5.25 | 54.47 | 54.80 | 1:49.27 |
| 15 | Mandlbauer / Hanschitz / Wiener / Bertschler | AUT | 1 | 5.23 | 5.19 | 54.31 | 55.17 | 1:49.48 |
| 16 | Austin / Eskrick-Parkinson / Zanette / Ashley | CAN | 21 | 5.36 | 5.38 | 54.68 | 54.85 | 1:49.53 |
| 17 | Baird / Midward / Wiliams / Cartagena | GBR | 20 | 5.29 | 5.30 | 54.85 | 54.94 | 1:49.79 |
| 17 | Wesselink / Pals / Franjic / Franjic | NED | 18 | 5.19 | 5.19 | 54.76 | 55.03 | 1:49.79 |
| 19 | Behounek / Dobes / Rapp / Vila | CZE | 2 | 5.28 | 5.27 | 54.27 | 56.13 | 1:50.40 |
| 20 | Norton / Evelyn / Bruggeling / Murray-Lawrence | CAN | 15 | 5.16 | 5.18 | 54.70 | 56.36 | 1:51.06 |
| 21 | Kim / Chun / Kim / Lee | KOR | 19 | 5.18 | 55.54 | |||
| DNS | Kranz / Bühler / Lenherr / Tschofen | LIE | 14 | DNS |