From St. Moritz, SUI
(January 11, 2025) – Over the past decade, the two best bobsled pilots anywhere have been Francsco Friedrich and Johannes Lochner. In St. Moritz, the duo entered the race weekend tied for wins on the historic track in two-man bobsled, with three each.
They walked away Saturday afternoon still tied for wins, but now with four wins.
Friedrich came into the second heat in third place, only .05 behind Lochner, and .01 behind Adam Ammour. His second start with Alexander Schüller was the quickest of the race, and though there were a couple small bumps along the 1900+ meter track, Friedrich set the quick time of the day to take the lead with Ammour and Lochner to go.
Ammour and Benedikt Hertel, season start record holders coming into the heat, matched their first start time. However, that put them even with Friedrich off the top but with a slower start. Ammour had a very good drive, was just a hair off of Friedrich’s pace and slid into second with Lochner to go.
Of the three German teams, Lochner and Georg Fleischhauer were the third quickest off the top with a 5.07, .02 off of Friedrich and Schüller’s time. Throughout his second drive Lochner trailed Friedrich and Ammour, but as in the first heat Lochner had the best drive in the final few curves. That was enough to bring him back to within .05 of Friedrich’s second run time and tie the two German teams for gold.
The tie for gold leaves Lochner and Friedrich tied for two-man wins in St. Moritz, now with four each. Lochner has eight medals in nine two-man World Cups starts on the historic track, while Friedrich has nine medals in 12 two-man starts there.
Ammour took third, only .07 behind his teammates for his fifth bronze in two-man action.
Markus Treichl and Daiyehan Nichols-Bardi picked up .05 on their second start on their way to a fourth-place finish to continue Treichl’s strong 2024/2025 campaign.
The Austrians edged out Micahel Vogt and Andreas Haas by a hundredth of a second, with the Swiss duo finishing fifth. Brad Hall and Greg Cackett entered the second heat tied with Treichl, and fell just behind the Austrian sled to finish sixth.
Frank Del Duca and Carsten Vissering slid to eighth, up from ninth in the first heat for Del Duca’s best finish in St. Moritz and second best finish in the 2024/2025 season.
The Canadians couldn’t quite find the speed they needed in Switzerland. Pat Norton and Mike Evelyn slid to 23rd, one spot ahead of Taylor Austin and Mark Zanette in 24th.
Adam Baird and Austin Milward slid to 18th place in the second British sled.
With three races to go in the 2024/2025 season, Friedrich leads Lochner by just 30 points. Brad Hall is third, with Markus Treichl and Patrick Baumgartner fourth and fifth.
Results:
| Pos | Names | Nation | Bib | Start 1 | Start 2 | Run 1 | Run 2 | Total |
| 1 | Friedrich / Schüller | GER | 5 | 5.07 | 5.05 | 66.41 | 65.80 | 2:12.21 |
| 1 | Lochner / Fleischhauer | GER | 9 | 5.11 | 5.07 | 66.36 | 65.85 | 2:12.21 |
| 3 | Ammour / Hertel | GER | 16 | 5.06 | 5.06 | 66.40 | 65.88 | 2:12.28 |
| 4 | Treichl / Nichols-Bardi | AUT | 12 | 5.22 | 5.17 | 66.94 | 66.26 | 2:13.22 |
| 5 | Vogt / Haas | SUI | 22 | 5.19 | 5.21 | 66.79 | 66.44 | 2:13.23 |
| 6 | Hall / Cackett | GBR | 10 | 5.16 | 5.15 | 66.94 | 66.38 | 2:13.32 |
| 7 | Rohner / Hersperger | SUI | 13 | 5.23 | 5.25 | 66.83 | 66.56 | 2:13.39 |
| 8 | del Duca / Vissering | USA | 7 | 5.20 | 5.20 | 67.03 | 66.47 | 2:13.50 |
| 9 | Follador / Rolli | SUI | 4 | 5.27 | 5.24 | 67.13 | 66.52 | 2:13.65 |
| 10 | Baumgartner / Fantazzini | ITA | 6 | 5.26 | 5.24 | 67.23 | 66.60 | 2:13.83 |
| 11 | Vain / Prevost | MON | 15 | 5.23 | 5.28 | 67.02 | 66.92 | 2:13.94 |
| 12 | Kim / Kim | KOR | 14 | 5.13 | 5.11 | 67.25 | 66.72 | 2:13.97 |
| 13 | Tentea / Iordache | ROU | 17 | 5.27 | 5.24 | 67.18 | 66.83 | 2:14.01 |
| 14 | Kalenda / Miknis | LAT | 8 | 5.20 | 5.17 | 67.25 | 66.78 | 2:14.03 |
| 15 | Variola / Gragazzi | ITA | 18 | 5.22 | 5.18 | 67.35 | 66.93 | 2:14.28 |
| 16 | Li / Shi | CHN | 11 | 5.20 | 5.20 | 67.34 | 67.13 | 2:14.47 |
| 17 | Sun / Zhen | CHN | 19 | 5.19 | 5.23 | 67.42 | 67.23 | 2:14.65 |
| 18 | Baird / Milward | GBR | 20 | 5.26 | 5.27 | 67.53 | 67.49 | 2:15.02 |
| 19 | Verginer / Lambrghi | ITA | 27 | 5.21 | 5.22 | 67.62 | 67.48 | 2:15.10 |
| 20 | Kranz / Lenherr | LIE | 23 | 5.43 | 5.42 | 67.61 | 67.61 | 2:15.22 |
| 21 | Maldbauer / Glaboniat | AUT | 21 | 5.29 | 67.63 | |||
| 22 | Brown / John | TTO | 28 | 5.35 | 67.72 | |||
| 23 | Norton / Evelyn | CAN | 3 | 5.26 | 67.95 | |||
| 24 | Austin / Zanette | CAN | 25 | 5.41 | 68.00 | |||
| 25 | Wesselink / Pals | NED | 26 | 5.36 | 68.11 | |||
| 26 | Turea / Dinca | ROU | 2 | 5.39 | 68.51 | |||
| 27 | Nica / Calancea | ROU | 24 | 5.42 | 68.51 | |||
| 28 | Silic / Krajisnik | CRO | 1 | 5.54 | 68.64 |