From Igls, AUT
(November 20, 2021) – Francesco Friedrich picked up right where he left off last season, cruising to another victory in Igls.
In a race that throughout the field was decided by mere hundredths of a second, the winningest bobsledder in history cruised to a .47 second victory over teammate Johannes Lochner. Friedrich had the two fastest runs of the race, though his second run was only .05 faster than Lochner’s second time down.
The gold for Friedrich was his 38th in two-man bobsled and his 53rd overall in World Cup action. For Lochner, the silver was his 12th in two-man World Cup races.
Great Britain’s Brad Hall won his second two-man bobsled medal on the same track where, a year prior, he’d won his first. This time it was a bronze, .16 behind Lochner and just .01 ahead of Canada’s Justin Kripps.
Kripps jumped up from fifth after the first heat to finish fourth, while the United States’ Codie Bascue finished fifth after coming into the second heat in second place. Bascue’s finish was his best ever in Europe.
Russia’s Rostislav Gaitiukevich rounded out the top six.
It was a big day for Canada between the women’s and men’s bobsled programs. Earlier in monobob action, Canada placed all three sleds in the top seven. In the two-man race, Chris Spring rallied from the 24th starting position to finish the first heat in 13th, then threw down the fifth quickest run in the second heat to move to eighth.
The United States’ Hunter Church finished 20th in his first race after foot surgery to fix a fracture suffered just prior to the Yanqing test event.
Great Britain’s Lamin Deen just missed out on the second heat in 23rd.
Results:
| Pos | Names | Nation | Bib | Start 1 | Start 2 | Run 1 | Run 2 | Total |
| 1 | Friedrich / Schüller | GER | 5 | 5.07 | 5.09 | 51.27 | 51.58 | 1:42.85 |
| 2 | Lochner / Bauer | GER | 17 | 5.11 | 5.08 | 51.69 | 51.63 | 1:43.32 |
| 3 | Hall / Cackett | GBR | 12 | 5.13 | 5.10 | 51.69 | 51.79 | 1:43.48 |
| 4 | Kripps / Stones | CAN | 10 | 5.14 | 5.12 | 51.70 | 51.79 | 1:43.49 |
| 5 | Bascue / Valdes | USA | 1 | 5.14 | 5.15 | 51.61 | 52.00 | 1:43.61 |
| 6 | Gaitiukevich / Mordasov | RUS | 15 | 5.10 | 5.10 | 51.78 | 51.85 | 1:43.63 |
| 7 | Vogt / Michel | SUI | 7 | 5.15 | 5.13 | 51.83 | 51.90 | 1:43.73 |
| 8 | Spring / Evelyn | CAN | 24 | 5.14 | 5.17 | 51.96 | 51.84 | 1:43.80 |
| 9 | Friedli / Haas | SUI | 8 | 5.15 | 5.13 | 51.88 | 51.93 | 1:43.81 |
| 10 | Tentea / Daroczi | ROU | 14 | 5.17 | 5.17 | 51.92 | 51.90 | 1:43.82 |
| 11 | Maier / Sammer | AUT | 16 | 5.14 | 5.16 | 51.92 | 51.91 | 1:43.83 |
| 12 | Kibermanis / Miknis | LAT | 4 | 5.13 | 5.11 | 51.90 | 51.95 | 1:43.86 |
| 13 | Rinaldi / Vain | MON | 22 | 5.13 | 5.15 | 51.99 | 51.89 | 1:43.88 |
| 14 | Dvorak / Zalesky | CZE | 13 | 5.17 | 5.20 | 51.93 | 52.06 | 1:43.99 |
| 15 | Hafer / Hammers | GER | 20 | 5.22 | 5.24 | 52.03 | 52.03 | 1:44.06 |
| 16 | de Bruin / Franjic | NED | 18 | 5.23 | 5.23 | 52.09 | 52.01 | 1:44.10 |
| 17 | Won / Seo | KOR | 11 | 5.15 | 5.20 | 51.98 | 52.13 | 1:44.11 |
| 17 | Heinrich / Lefebvre | FRA | 6 | 5.20 | 5.21 | 51.98 | 52.13 | 1:44.11 |
| 19 | Andrianov / Pushkarev | RUS | 27 | 5.20 | 5.22 | 52.15 | 51.97 | 1:44.12 |
| 20 | Church / Horn | USA | 9 | 5.24 | 5.26 | 52.04 | 52.14 | 1:44.18 |
| 21 | Variola / Fantazzini | ITA | 25 | 5.18 | 52.18 | |||
| 22 | Treichl / Eckschlager | AUT | 21 | 5.19 | 52.20 | |||
| 23 | Deen / Simons | GBR | 2 | 5.30 | 52.29 | |||
| 24 | Baumgartner / Mircea | ITA | 23 | 5.21 | 52.37 | |||
| 25 | Sun / Zhen | CHN | 26 | 5.21 | 52.45 | |||
| 26 | Li / Liu | CHN | 19 | 5.23 | 52.54 | |||
| 27 | Shinohara / Kaneko | JPN | 3 | 5.30 | 52.59 |
