Friedrich Wins Yanqing Four-Man, Germany Sweeps Test Event Golds

From Yanqing, CHN

(October 26, 2021) – Francesco Friedrich and his team dominated the four-man event in Yanqing, winning easily over teammate Johannes Lochner.

The Olympic gold medalist was competitive off the top, just .02 off the best pace of the day, but was flawless everywhere on the course on his way to a .3 second victory over Lochner. Lochner set the second quick time in both heats to take silver, .36 ahead of Latvia’s Oskars Kibermanis, who won bronze.

Canada’s Justin Kripps was consistent on both of his runs, setting times just .06 apart from each other to finish fourth. Russia’s Rostislav Gaitiukevich finished fifth on the strength of the quickest start in both heats, while teammate Maxim Andrianov rounded out the top six.

Christopher Spring finished in 12th place in the second Canadian sled, while Codie Bascue finished 15th in the lone American effort.

The gold medal for Friedrich gave Germany a sweep of the Yanqing gold medals. In the first day of competition, Tina Hermann won the women’s skeleton race, Alexander Gassner won gold in the men’s race,  Mariama Jamanka won gold in the monobob event and Friedrich took two-man top honors. Prior to the four-man competition, Laura Nolte won gold in the two-woman event. In total, Germany won ten of the 18 available medals in the Yanqing test event.

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