From Lake Placid, USA
(March 14, 2025) – It was a warm day for the start of the four-man bobsled World Championships in Lake Placid, but for the first 45 runs across two heats the racing seemed to be as good as ever.
That changed with an incident with Johannes Lochner, who was second after the first heat.
Lochner’s start was as quick as ever, with his team giving him a heat-quickest start to that point. But as Lochner hopped in the sled, his foot punched a hole in the sled. From there, things got weirder. There was a bit of concrete showing in Curves 5 and 17, and Lochner hit one if not both pieces of concrete, which killed his run and dropped him well down the order.
After a brief track hold to patch the track, Francesco Friedrich slid to the lead after two runs to otherwise end the heat it was announced that Lochner would initially take a re-run due to ice conditions. But after a lengthy track hold, the decision was made to entirely scrap the second heat, turning the first day of four-man into a one heat race.
In that one heat race, Friedrich pushed a 4.94 with his team, the quickest of the heat, to set a time that would not be replicated. Lochner was second off, and slid to second place, only .03 ahead of Hall, who now sits third after the heat.
Germany’s Adam Ammour sits fourth, .33 behind Hall, but only .06 ahead of USA’s Frank Del Duca, who sits fifth after a strong start by his team and a clean run down.
In sixth place, USA’s Kris Horn sits tied with South Korea’s Jinsu Kim.
Geoffrey Gadbois, who is nursing an injured leg suffered in the final heat of the two-man bobsled competition on the previous weekend, sits 21st after one run.
Canada’s Taylor Austin sits 12th after one run, tied with China’s Kaizhi Sun and Switzerland’s Cedric Follador. In 16th is Pat Norton, while Jay Dearborn currently sits 20th.
Brazil’s Edson Bindilatti is 15th in a new sled.
Standings After One Run
| Pos | Name | Nation | Bib | Start 1 | Run 1 |
| 1 | Friedrich / Sommer / Schüller / Straub | GER | 1 | 4.94 | 54.23 |
| 2 | Lochner / Bauer / Wenzel / Fleischhauer | GER | 2 | 4.96 | 54.42 |
| 3 | Hall / Gulliver / Lawrence / Cackett | GBR | 3 | 5.03 | 54.54 |
| 4 | Ammour / Stadelmann / Ammour / Schenk | GER | 4 | 5.08 | 54.87 |
| 5 | Del Duca / Williamson / Niederhofer / Volker | USA | 11 | 5.04 | 54.93 |
| 6 | Kim / Kim / Kim / Lee | KOR | 10 | 5.01 | 55.08 |
| 6 | Horn / Vissering / Christofferson / Powell | USA | 22 | 5.04 | 55.08 |
| 8 | Vogt / Jones / Hufschmid / Ndiaye | SUI | 7 | 5.18 | 55.12 |
| 9 | Baumgartner / Fantazzini / Mircea / Bilotti | ITA | 5 | 5.13 | 55.19 |
| 10 | Kalenda / Bebriss / Miknis / Klava | LAT | 9 | 5.11 | 55.25 |
| 11 | Rohner / Schläpfer / Annen / Hersperger | SUI | 8 | 5.20 | 55.27 |
| 12 | Follador / Mariani / Vögele / Juillard | SUI | 6 | 5.16 | 55.29 |
| 12 | Sun / Ding / Ye Zhen | CHN | 15 | 5.10 | 55.29 |
| 12 | Austin / Evelyn/ Bruggeling / Murray-Lawrence | CAN | 16 | 5.09 | 55.29 |
| 15 | Bindilatti / Martins / da Silva / Jeronimo | BRA | 21 | 5.17 | 55.38 |
| 16 | Norton / Zanette / Eskrick-Parkinson / Ashley | CAN | 12 | 5.25 | 55.51 |
| 17 | Tentea / Dinescu / Pacioianu / Iordache | ROU | 14 | 5.20 | 55.74 |
| 18 | Li / Jiang / Shi /An | CHN | 13 | 5.20 | 55.79 |
| 19 | Behounek / Dobes / Wijas / Rapp | CZE | 18 | 5.22 | 55.84 |
| 20 | Dearborn / M’Pindou / de Guzman / Ade | CAN | 25 | 5.23 | 55.94 |
| 21 | Gadbois / Storms / Adams / Gilbert | USA | 20 | 5.24 | 56.03 |
| 22 | Suk / Lee / Park / Jung | KOR | 23 | 5.41 | 56.27 |
| 23 | Palakai / Wongpiyakul / Maddulem / Donpritee | THA | 19 | 5.30 | 57.32 |
| 24 | Peters / Takapautolo / Penington / Forst | AUS | 24 | 5.69 | 65.63 |
| DNS | Mandlbauer / Stepan / Nichols-Bardi / Bertschler | AUT | 17 | DNS |