From Pyeongchang, KOR
Feb. 24, 2018 – One year ago, Francesco Friedrich tied with teammate Johannes Lochner for the IBSF World Championship in four-man bobsled. At the halfway point in the 2018 Olympic Games, Friedrich is in a position to win again.
The German pilot was the quickest in both heats and set a track record on the first trip down on his way to a .29 advantage over Won Yunjong.
The Korean pilot was the first off the top in the first heat, and was able to hold onto second place going into the second day of sliding ahead of German Nico Walther, who sits third.
Friedrich credited a setup to match what turned out to be a softer ice than anyone had seen in these Olympics for his result.
“The ice was a little bit soft, some teams expected harder ice and likely didn’t use the right runners,” Friedrich said.
Justin Kripps finished fourth in the World Cup in four-man bobsled and finds himself in that position in the Olympics, .23 out of medal position. Behind him, a three-way tie for fifth with Oskars Melbardis, Johannes Lochner, and Rico Peter round out the top seven.
Kripps, the two-man bobsled Olympic gold medalist was content with where he was after two heats.
“We pumped off some awesome starts today, and set a start record. We lost a bit of time toward the bottom of the track, I’ll have to look at some video overnight and see if I can spot some mistakes.”
The middle of the pack were the big movers in the race, with Benjamin Maier, Codie Bascue, and Oskars Kibermanis all moving up at least three positions each.
Bascue was the top-scoring American in the first two days, moving up from 12th in the first heat to 9th overnight. He feels confident going into the second day of four-man.
“I think we’re pretty happy with ninth, there’s about a tenth to the spots ahead of me,” Bascue said. “We’re in a good place to move up tomorrow. I think we’re happy with how we pushed, confident with how our runs went, but we can push harder and drive better tomorrow.”
Bascue’s teammates Nick Cunningham and Justin Olsen sit 20th and 21st after two runs. Cunningham was happy with his first heat, but thinks he can improve in the third and fourth runs.
“I’m actually pretty pleased with my two runs today. I’m happy with what we did, I fixed the mistakes I made in two-man. We’re moving in the right direction, the clock is just going in the wrong direction. As long as we continue to fight then we can walk out of here with our heads held high.”
Four-man bobsled resumes for the third and fourth run on Sunday, February 25 at 9:30 AM KST (Saturday, February 24 at 7:30 PM EST).
Results:
| Pos | Names | Nation | Bib | Run 1 | Run 2 | Total |
| 1 | Friedrich / Bauer / Grothkopp / Margis | GER | 7 | 48.54 | 49.01 | 1:37.55 |
| 2 | Won / Jun / Seo / Kim | KOR | 1 | 48.65 | 49.19 | 1:37.84 |
| 3 | Walther / Kuske / Rödiger / Franke | GER | 8 | 48.74 | 49.16 | 1:37.90 |
| 4 | Kripps / Lumsden / Kopacz / Smith | CAN | 9 | 48.85 | 49.28 | 1:38.13 |
| 5 | Melbardis / Dreiskens / Vilkaste / Strenga | LAT | 10 | 48.82 | 49.39 | 1:38.21 |
| 5 | Lochner / Poser / Weber / Rasp | GER | 6 | 48.95 | 49.26 | 1:38.21 |
| 5 | Peter / Amrhein / Friedli / Kuonen | SUI | 16 | 49.05 | 49.16 | 1:38.21 |
| 8 | Maier / Walch / Sammer / Moldovan | AUT | 14 | 49.10 | 49.21 | 1:38.31 |
| 9 | Bascue / Weinstock / Langton / McGuffie | USA | 13 | 49.09 | 49.34 | 1:38.43 |
| 10 | Kibermanis / Jansons / Lusis / Miknis | LAT | 12 | 49.18 | 49.26 | 1:38.44 |
| 11 | Costerg / Ricard / Castell / Hauterville | FRA | 18 | 49.09 | 49.36 | 1:38.45 |
| 12 | Bracher / Knuser / Meier / Badraun | SUI | 3 | 49.06 | 49.54 | 1:38.60 |
| 13 | Luty / Zdebiak / Miedzik / Kossakowski | POL | 5 | 49.04 | 49.59 | 1:38.63 |
| 13 | Poloniato / Stones / Kirkpatrick / Coakwell | CAN | 21 | 49.40 | 49.23 | 1:38.63 |
| 15 | Spring / Brown / Barnett / Wright | CAN | 11 | 49.06 | 49.58 | 1:38.64 |
| 16 | Andrianov / Zaitsev / Kondratenko/ Samitov | OAR | 20 | 49.43 | 49.39 | 1:38.82 |
| 17 | Deen / Simons / Olubi / Matthews | GBR | 15 | 49.44 | 49.45 | 1:38.89 |
| 18 | Hall / Gleeson / Fearon / Cackett | GBR | 17 | 49.25 | 49.68 | 1:38.93 |
| 19 | Dvorak / Kopriva / Sindelar / Nosek | CZE | 2 | 49.07 | 49.97 | 1:39.04 |
| 20 | Cunningham / Abdul-Saboor / Kinney / Michener | USA | 22 | 49.60 | 49.50 | 1:39.10 |
| 21 | Olsen / Weber / Valdes / C. Fogt | USA | 19 | 49.62 | 49.71 | 1:39.33 |
| 22 | Vrba / Stoklaska / Suchy / Egydy | CZE | 28 | 49.73 | 49.81 | 1:39.54 |
| 23 | Treichl / Glück / Rangl / Bassey | AUT | 24 | 49.73 | 49.83 | 1:39.56 |
| 24 | Mata / Mari / Reidy / Smith | AUS | 4 | 49.72 | 49.91 | 1:39.63 |
| 25 | Bindilatti / Pessoni / Martins / Souza da Silva | BRA | 23 | 49.75 | 49.94 | 1:39.69 |
| 26 | Shao / Wang / Li / Shi | CHN | 26 | 49.79 | 50.01 | 1:39.80 |
| 27 | Bertazzo / Fontana / Costa / Bilotti | ITA | 25 | 49.92 | 49.94 | 1:39.86 |
| 28 | Silic / Nikpalj / Mezulic / Zelic | CRO | 27 | 50.18 | 50.64 | 1:40.82 |
| 29 | Grigore / Muntean / Craciun / Bartha | ROU | 29 | 50.55 | 50.79 | 1:41.34 |
