From Winterberg, GER
(January 14, 2022) – Richard Oelsner and Henrik Bosse edged out a fleet of German teammates to win the European Cup two-man finale as part of a German sweep of the topf our spots in Winterberg.
Oelsner drove to a tie for the lead with Jonas Jannusch and Max Neumann in the first heat, with teammates Max Illmann and Felix Dahms only .08 back in third place and Phiipp Zielasko and Henrik Proske .09 in fourth.
On the second run Zielasko set the quick run of the heat to that point from fourth, and eventually leapfrogged both Jannusch and Illmann to hang onto the lead with only Oelsner to go.
Oelsner and Bosse pushed a race-fastest 5.25 start to start ahead of Zielasko. Oelsner once again drove well, and at the finish found himself .09 ahead of Zielasko to win gold.
It was the fourth straight win and sixth of the season for Oelsner, who had already clinched the season title. The silver for Zielasko tied his best ever two-man finish.
Jannusch, tied for the lead after the first heat, fell to third, only .04 ahead of Illmann in fourth.
The United States’ Codie Bascue and Adrian Adams finished fifth in the top non-German sled, while Cedric Follador and Nicola Mariani rounded out the top six.
Tyler Hickey finished in a tie for seventh with Timo Rohner, while Geoff Gadbois finished just out of the top ten in 11th.
Adam Baird led the way for Great Britain with a 12th place finish, teammate John Stanbridge missed out on a second run by .06 seconds and finished 21st.
Liechtenstein’s Martin Kranz finished 19th.
With Oelsner having already clinched the title, the battle for second overall was between Switzerland’s Follador and Russian veteran Alexey Stulnev. Follador came out on top, 24 points ahead of Stulnev to take second overall, while Stulnev finished third.
Results:
| Pos | Names | Nation | Bib | Start 1 | Start 2 | Run 1 | Run 2 | Finish |
| 1 | Oelsner / Bosse | GER | 5 | 5.29 | 5.25 | 55.88 | 55.86 | 1:51.74 |
| 2 | Zielasko / Proske | GER | 30 | 5.26 | 5.26 | 55.97 | 55.86 | 1:51.83 |
| 3 | Jannusch / Neumann | GER | 12 | 5.27 | 5.26 | 55.88 | 56.04 | 1:51.92 |
| 4 | Illmann / Dahms | GER | 10 | 5.30 | 5.26 | 55.96 | 56.00 | 1:51.96 |
| 5 | Bascue / Adams | USA | 7 | 5.33 | 5.29 | 56.15 | 56.20 | 1:52.35 |
| 6 | Follador / Mariani | SUI | 13 | 5.32 | 5.30 | 56.26 | 56.11 | 1:52.37 |
| 7 | Hickey / Cheek | USA | 11 | 5.36 | 5.33 | 56.15 | 56.23 | 1:52.38 |
| 7 | Rohner / Hersperger | SUI | 16 | 5.30 | 5.28 | 56.22 | 56.16 | 1:52.38 |
| 9 | Stulnev / Zakharchenko | RUS | 4 | 5.30 | 5.29 | 56.21 | 56.27 | 1:52.48 |
| 10 | Moulinier / Juillard | SUI | 14 | 5.33 | 5.30 | 56.32 | 56.23 | 1:52.55 |
| 11 | Gadbois / Mitchell | USA | 8 | 5.36 | 5.35 | 56.22 | 56.48 | 1:52.70 |
| 12 | Baird / Cartagena | GBR | 22 | 5.42 | 5.41 | 56.67 | 56.42 | 1:53.09 |
| 13 | Silic / Nikpalj | CRO | 6 | 5.44 | 5.42 | 56.70 | 56.55 | 1:53.25 |
| 13 | Dubinko / Kislitsa | RUS | 26 | 5.28 | 5.27 | 56.70 | 56.55 | 1:53.25 |
| 15 | Baechler / Alais | FRA | 23 | 5.42 | 5.40 | 56.76 | 56.51 | 1:53.27 |
| 16 | Popov / Gryaznov | USA | 19 | 5.37 | 5.37 | 56.72 | 56.71 | 1:53.43 |
| 17 | Bankov / Chaban | RUS | 20 | 5.37 | 5.36 | 56.71 | 56.88 | 1:53.59 |
| 18 | Nica / Calancea | ROU | 3 | 5.52 | 5.46 | 56.88 | 56.90 | 1:53.78 |
| 19 | Kranz / Uz | LIE | 15 | 5.63 | 5.63 | 56.90 | 56.98 | 1:53.88 |
| 20 | Kaiser / Volgger | AUT | 28 | 5.43 | 5.47 | 56.89 | 57.01 | 1:53.90 |
| 21 | Stanbridge / Hudson | GBR | 1 | 5.53 | 56.95 | |||
| 22 | Edelman / Chen | ISR | 9 | 5.59 | 57.05 | |||
| 23 | Kalenda / Kirejevs | LAT | 25 | 5.31 | 57.23 | |||
| 24 | Behounek / Fomenko | CZE | 24 | 5.49 | 57.24 | |||
| 25 | Osobczyk / Jastrzebski | POL | 27 | 5.45 | 57.51 | |||
| 26 | Besnard / Latrompette | FRA | 29 | 5.60 | 57.78 | |||
| DNS | Shinohara / Kaneko | JPN | 18 | DNS | ||||
| DNS | Variola / Mircea | ITA | 21 | DNS | ||||
| DNS | Ghilardini / Juarez | ITA | 2 | DNS | ||||
| DNS | Novakovic / Radosavljevic | SRB | 17 | DNS |
