From Winterberg, GER
(December 11, 2021) – For the second time in the 2021/2022 IBSF World Cup season, Francesco Friedrich found himself out of the lead after one heat. But Friedrich did what he did best and slid his way to four-man bobsled gold in Winterberg.
Friedrich trailed teammates Johannes Lochner and Christoph Hafer after one heat but the times were close: Lochner was only .01 ahead of Hafer, and only .02 ahead of Friedrich.
On the second run Friedrich’s team gave him the quickest start of the competition. He backed that up with the quickest slide of the heat. Hafer couldn’t match Friedrich’s time as he fell behind Canadian Justin Kripps with just Lochner to go.
Lochner’s second run was just about equal to Friedrich’s. His team gave him a 5.06 start, which left the two pilots equal at the first split. Lochner fell behind and while he made up time at the bottom of his run, it wasn’t enough to pick off Friedrich.
The margin of victory for Friedrich was .05, the closest race of his season thus far.
Friedrich’s gold kept him perfect on the season and was his 19th four-man bobsled gold medal. For Lochner, the silver medal was his fifth on the season between two-man and four-man bobsled, and the ninth of his four-man career.
Justin Kripps slid his way into a bronze medal after entering the second heat in fourth place. It was his ninth bronze medal as a pilot in four-man competition.
Christoph Hafer helped put all three German sleds in the top four with his fourth place effort, only .05 out of a medal. Great Britain’s Brad Hall jumped up from a tie for eighth in the first heat to finish fifth, while Benjamin Maier finished sixth.
Hunter Church led the way for the United States. His team gave him two strong starts, and he backed that up with a pair of quality runs. His second run was a bit skiddy and he fell from seventh, but still scored a top ten. Teammate Codie Bascue moved up from 13th to 12th on his second run.
Chris Spring fell from 12th to 13th in the second heat, edged by Bascue by just .01, while Lamin Deen struggled on a slowing track with the 25th starting position and finished 23rd.
The race was the first of two four-man competitions in Winterberg, as the tour will host double two-man races in Sigulda later in the season.
Results:
| Pos | Names | Nation | Bib | Start 1 | Start 2 | Run 1 | Run 2 | Total |
| 1 | Friedrich / Margis / Grothkopp / Schüller | GER | 6 | 5.06 | 5.04 | 53.78 | 54.17 | 1:47.95 |
| 2 | Lochner / Bauer / Weber / Rasp | GER | 11 | 5.05 | 5.06 | 53.76 | 54.24 | 1:48.00 |
| 3 | Kripps / Sommer / Stones / Coakwell | CAN | 13 | 5.06 | 5.07 | 53.89 | 54.20 | 1:48.09 |
| 4 | Hafer / Hertel / Bruckert / Sommer | GER | 1 | 5.10 | 5.12 | 53.77 | 54.37 | 1:48.14 |
| 5 | Hall / Lawrence / Gleeson / Cackett | GBR | 10 | 5.07 | 5.06 | 54.07 | 54.20 | 1:48.27 |
| 6 | Maier / Moldovan / Sammer / Huber | AUT | 4 | 5.11 | 5.10 | 53.91 | 54.43 | 1:48.34 |
| 7 | Gaitiukevich / Mordasov / Zharovtsev / Travkin | RUS | 8 | 5.07 | 5.07 | 54.04 | 54.38 | 1:48.42 |
| 8 | Kibermanis / Springis / Kaufmanis / Nemme | LAT | 5 | 5.11 | 5.12 | 54.07 | 54.44 | 1:48.51 |
| 9 | Vogt / Weber / Rolli / Michel | SUI | 12 | 5.10 | 5.12 | 54.21 | 54.43 | 1:48.64 |
| 10 | Church / Williamson / Horn / Volker | USA | 9 | 5.07 | 5.06 | 54.05 | 54.67 | 1:48.72 |
| 11 | de Bruin / Franjic / Veenker / Huis in ‘t veld | NED | 2 | 5.23 | 5.23 | 54.19 | 54.57 | 1:48.76 |
| 12 | Bascue / Valdes / Reed / Abdul-Saboor | USA | 15 | 5.09 | 5.10 | 54.28 | 54.52 | 1:48.80 |
| 13 | Spring / Evelyn / Sorensen / Giguere | CAN | 18 | 5.14 | 5.13 | 54.26 | 54.55 | 1:48.81 |
| 14 | Friedli / Schläpfer / Jones / Haas | SUI | 16 | 5.15 | 5.14 | 54.34 | 54.52 | 1:48.86 |
| 15 | Dvorak / Sindelar / Prochazka / Nosek | CZE | 14 | 5.14 | 5.15 | 54.33 | 54.62 | 1:48.95 |
| 16 | Won / Kim / Kim Jung | KOR | 22 | 5.17 | 5.17 | 54.57 | 54.42 | 1:48.99 |
| 17 | Andrianov / Zaytsev / Kondratenko / Gryaznov | RUS | 7 | 5.16 | 5.16 | 54.54 | 54.54 | 1:49.08 |
| 17 | Tentea / Dobre / Daroczi / Radu | ROU | 17 | 5.15 | 5.15 | 54.53 | 54.55 | 1:49.08 |
| 19 | Treichl / Glück / Mitterer / Eckschlager | AUT | 21 | 5.16 | 5.16 | 54.52 | 54.60 | 1:49.12 |
| 20 | Variola / Mircea / Bagnini / Obou | ITA | 3 | 5.12 | 5.15 | 54.46 | 54.78 | 1:49.24 |
| 21 | Heinrich / Lefebvre / Delmestre / Laporal | FRA | 19 | 5.14 | 54.60 | |||
| 22 | Baumgartner / Fantazzini / Verginer / Bilotti | ITA | 23 | 5.17 | 54.65 | |||
| 23 | Deen / Olubi / Fearon / Simons | GBR | 25 | 5.19 | 54.68 | |||
| 24 | Li / Ye/ Shi / Zhen | CHN | 20 | 5.14 | 54.75 | |||
| 25 | Kaufmanis / Kleinbergs / Nungurs / Lindenblats | LAT | 24 | 5.14 | 55.25 | |||
| 26 | Shinohara / Hamano / Kaneko / Murakami | JPN | 26 | 5.27 | 55.35 |
