From Altenberg, GER
(December 18, 2021) – There wasn’t too much drama at the end of the Altenberg two-man race, where Francesco Friedrich and Thorsten Margis had the best push, Friedrich set the quick time in the first heat, held his lead in the second heat and the Germans took gold.
Behind them, though, the racing was tight and after one run Germany’s Christoph Hafer, Russia’s Rostislav Gaitiukevich and Germany’s Johannes Lochner were all in the mix for the medals.
On the second run it was Canada who took the field somewhat by surprise. Justin Kripps and Cam Stones threw down the fastest run of the second heat to skip first ahead of teammate Chris Spring and Mike Evelyn. After that he picked off Benjamin Maier, Lochner, and Gaitiukevich to work his way into the medals, with spring only .02 back in fourth.
It was then up to Hafer to hold his spot. Despite a start time that was over a tenth behind Kripps, Hafer put down a near perfect slide and took the lead with only Friedrich to go.
Friedrich and Margis then closed the race out with a downtime that was .02 slower than Kripps’s heat-fastest run but plenty enough to win gold, his 41st in two-man and 61st overall.
Hafer’s silver was the first of his World Cup career. Kripps’s bronze was his 20th World Cup tw0-man medal.
Kripps thought the race couldn’t have gone much better.
“We were really happy with the race,” Kripps told IBSF TV. “With the start position in the first run we had a slower track. We were happy to capitalize on the second run and move into the medals. It’s always special to get a medal in Altenberg.”
Kripps edged out Spring for the podium position but would have prefered an alternate finish.
“I think we were hoping we were going to tie there,” he said. “Then we’d both get on the podium.
Swiss pilot Simon Friedli moved up along with Kripps and Spring to finish fifth from eighth in the first heat, while Gaitiukevich finished sixth.
Great Britain’s Brad Hall jumped up from 12th to ninth on the strength of the race’s third quickest run (behind Friedrich and Kripps).
The United States had a mostly forgettable race in Altenberg. Codie Bascue appeared to make contact with the roof in Kreisel on his run and finished 22nd. Hunter Church seemed to have no speed in his sled whatsoever, and finished 23rd.
Lamin Deen spent a period of time waiting out a track hold due to a serious crash by Ryo Shinohara and as he waited the track continued to frost up. He finished 25th on a run where he seemingly had no chance to gain any real speed.
Results:
| Pos | Names | Nation | Bib | Start 1 | Start 2 | Run 1 | Run 2 | Total |
| 1 | Friedrich / Margis | GER | 12 | 5.16 | 5.13 | 55.09 | 55.28 | 1:50.37 |
| 2 | Hafer / Ammour | GER | 5 | 5.35 | 5.31 | 55.24 | 55.35 | 1:50.59 |
| 3 | Kripps / Stones | CAN | 13 | 5.22 | 5.19 | 55.42 | 55.26 | 1:50.68 |
| 4 | Spring / Evelyn | CAN | 7 | 5.25 | 5.25 | 55.35 | 55.35 | 1:50.70 |
| 5 | Friedli / Haas | SUI | 14 | 5.25 | 5.25 | 55.43 | 55.30 | 1:50.73 |
| 6 | Gaitiukevich / Mordasov | RUS | 11 | 5.16 | 5.16 | 55.27 | 55.47 | 1:50.74 |
| 7 | Maier / Sammer | AUT | 4 | 5.25 | 5.24 | 55.33 | 55.49 | 1:50.82 |
| 8 | Heinrich / Hauterville | FRA | 16 | 5.29 | 5.28 | 55.52 | 55.40 | 1:50.92 |
| 9 | Hall / Gleeson | GBR | 8 | 5.20 | 5.22 | 55.81 | 55.29 | 1:51.10 |
| 10 | Vogt / Michel | SUI | 10 | 5.26 | 5.28 | 55.57 | 55.55 | 1:51.12 |
| 11 | Lochner / Krenz | GER | 6 | 5.26 | 5.26 | 55.31 | 55.81 | 1:51.12 |
| 12 | Dvorak / Nosek | CZE | 20 | 5.28 | 5.27 | 55.86 | 55.67 | 1:51.53 |
| 13 | Baumgartner / Bilotti | ITA | 1 | 5.42 | 5.38 | 55.82 | 55.74 | 1:51.56 |
| 14 | Andrianov / Efimov | RUS | 3 | 5.31 | 5.31 | 55.69 | 55.92 | 1:51.61 |
| 15 | Treichl / Mitterer | AUT | 19 | 5.28 | 5.28 | 55.90 | 55.83 | 1:51.73 |
| 16 | Li / Ding | CHN | 21 | 5.31 | 5.32 | 56.09 | 55.79 | 1:51.88 |
| 17 | Cipulis / Nemme | LAT | 18 | 5.25 | 5.27 | 56.10 | 55.87 | 1:51.97 |
| 18 | Kibermanis / Dambis | LAT | 17 | 5.30 | 5.31 | 56.06 | 55.96 | 1:52.02 |
| 19 | de Bruin Franjic | NED | 2 | 5.38 | 5.37 | 56.00 | 56.07 | 1:52.07 |
| 20 | Tentea / Daroczi | ROU | 9 | 5.43 | 5.45 | 56.17 | 56.01 | 1:52.18 |
| 21 | Won / Kim | KOR | 23 | 5.31 | 56.19 | |||
| 22 | Bascue / Valdes | USA | 15 | 5.30 | 56.42 | |||
| 23 | Church / Williamson | USA | 24 | 5.39 | 56.56 | |||
| 24 | Variola / Obou | ITA | 27 | 5.31 | 56.67 | |||
| 25 | Deen / Olubi | GBR | 26 | 5.41 | 56.98 | |||
| 26 | Shinohara / Kaneko | JPN | 25 | 5.46 | 66.42 | |||
| DNS | Kaufmanis / Kleinbergs | LAT | 22 | DNS |
