From Altenberg, GER
Feb.6, 2021 – Francesco Friedrich dominated the 2020/2021 IBSF World Cup season, winning 11 of 12 two-man races over the course of the season. He showed that dominance one more time in the first day of sliding in the two-man World Championships, opening up a huge lead on the field.
Friedrich carried a .52 second advantage over Switzerland’s Michael Vogt. By the end of the second heat, that advantage had grown to .88, despite some mistakes by Friedrich on his second trip down.
Behind Friedrich the racing was really right. Coming into the second heat, Vogt held a .02 advantage over Johannes Lochner, with Oskars Kibermanis, Hans Peter Hannighofer and others all in the hunt for the top three.
On the second run, Lochner put down the second quickest run of the heat to move up ahead of Vogt by just .05. Hannighofer finished his first day as a World Championships pilot in fourth, only .1 out of a medal position. Simon Friedli and Oskars Kibermanis rounded out the top six after the first day of sliding.
Both of Canada’s entries, piloted by Justin Kripps and Christopher Spring, went late due to the Canadians only running half of the World Cup season. Despite that, Kripps moved up from 12th to finish the first day of sliding in tenth. Spring finished the day three places back in 13th.
Great Britain’s Brad Hall fell out of the top ten on his second run, and will go into the third heat in 11th place, a tenth of a second behind Kripps. Lamin Deen finished the second heat in 18th, but with a good chance to move up in the third heat.
Korea’s Yunjong Won was the big mover, jumping up from 18th in the first heat to 12th. Austria’s Benjamin Maier crashed coming out of Kreisel, and while he received a finish time he ended the day in 25th and will not start the third heat.
The United States did not enter any bobsleds in either the two or four-man bobsled races, as their program is preparing for their Olympic trials later this winter.
Results:
| Pos | Names | Nation | Bib | Start 1 | Start 2 | Run 1 | Run 2 | Total |
| 1 | Friedrich / Schüller | GER | 4 | 5.13 | 5.12 | 54.83 | 55.41 | 1:50.24 |
| 2 | Lochner / Franke | GER | 5 | 5.22 | 5.22 | 55.37 | 55.75 | 1:51.12 |
| 3 | Vogt / Michel | SUI | 8 | 5.26 | 5.26 | 55.35 | 55.82 | 1:51.17 |
| 4 | Hannighofer / Röder | GER | 18 | 5.26 | 5.25 | 55.46 | 55.81 | 1:51.27 |
| 5 | Friedli / Haas | SUI | 9 | 5.28 | 5.27 | 55.51 | 55.88 | 1:51.39 |
| 6 | Kibermanis / Miknis | LAT | 7 | 5.18 | 5.17 | 55.42 | 56.01 | 1:51.43 |
| 7 | Hafer / Hammers | GER | 11 | 5.37 | 5.36 | 55.55 | 55.93 | 1:51.48 |
| 8 | Heinrich / Hauterville | FRA | 13 | 5.35 | 5.33 | 55.55 | 55.96 | 1:51.51 |
| 9 | Melbardis / Lindenblats | LAT | 10 | 5.26 | 5.26 | 55.52 | 56.14 | 1:51.66 |
| 10 | Kripps / Stones | CAN | 21 | 5.28 | 5.31 | 55.76 | 55.92 | 1:51.68 |
| 11 | Hall / Cackett | GBR | 14 | 5.29 | 5.29 | 55.65 | 56.13 | 1:51.78 |
| 12 | Won / Seo | KOR | 24 | 5.30 | 5.36 | 55.89 | 55.92 | 1:51.81 |
| 13 | Spring / Evelyn | CAN | 22 | 5.26 | 5.32 | 55.78 | 56.04 | 1:51.82 |
| 14 | Treichl / Mitterer | AUT | 20 | 5.36 | 5.38 | 55.83 | 56.00 | 1:51.83 |
| 15 | Gaitiukevich / Malykh | BFR | 12 | 5.28 | 5.27 | 55.73 | 56.25 | 1:51.98 |
| 16 | Baumgartner / Fantazzini | ITA | 2 | 5.39 | 5.39 | 55.94 | 56.10 | 1:52.04 |
| 17 | Dvorak / Nosek | CZE | 6 | 5.29 | 5.30 | 55.81 | 56.26 | 1:52.07 |
| 18 | Deen / Dasaolu | GBR | 1 | 5.44 | 5.44 | 55.86 | 56.41 | 1:52.27 |
| 19 | Tentea / Daroczi | ROU | 15 | 5.37 | 5.39 | 56.02 | 56.37 | 1:52.39 |
| 20 | Stulnev / Zharovtsev | BFR | 19 | 5.35 | 5.36 | 56.23 | 56.35 | 1:52.58 |
| 21 | de Bruin / Franjic | NED | 17 | 5.34 | 5.31 | 55.96 | 56.69 | 1:52.65 |
| 22 | Cipulis / Bebriss | LAT | 23 | 5.33 | 5.35 | 56.29 | 56.96 | 1:53.23 |
| 23 | Suk / Jang | KOR | 3 | 5.43 | 5.48 | 56.40 | 57.18 | 1:53.58 |
| 24 | Ohanlon / Williamson | AUS | 25 | 5.71 | 5.76 | 58.52 | 58.90 | 1:57.42 |
| 25 | Maier / Sammer | AUT | 16 | 5.26 | 5.27 | 55.84 | 63.29 | 1:59.13 |
