Nico Walther wins silver in the four-man bobsleigh ahead of Benjamin Maier of Austria

Winterberg (RWH): Bobsleigh pilot Johannes Lochner of Germany is the 2017 European Champion in the four-man bobsleigh. The Junior World Champion Lochner and his team of Sebastian Mrowka/Joshua Blum/Christian Rasp secured their second consecutive World Cup victory with a 0.45 second advantage over the rest of the field at the BMW IBSF World Cup in Winterberg (GER). As the fourth race of the season also determined the winners of the 2017 IBSF European Championships, Johannes Lochner also celebrated the first European Championship title of his career.

Taking second place in the World Cup in Winterberg meant that Nico Walther and Kevin Kuske/Kevin Korona/Eric Franke (GER) also secured their first medal in the four-man bobsleigh European Championships with silver. Benjamin Maier/Stefan Laussegger/Markus Sammer/Danut Moldovan of Austria (0.47 seconds behind) finished third in the World Cup and won bronze for their second consecutive European Championship medal after pilot Benjamin Maier achieved silver in 2016.

Alexander Kasjanov (787 points) climbed the points to lead the overall standings in the 2016/2017 BMW/IBSF World Cup after four of eight races. The Russian only just missed out on a place on the World Cup podium after finishing fourth. Previous leader Rico Peter of Switzerland (731) finished fourteenth in Winterberg and is now second overall. Third place in the overall World Cup standings for the four-man bobsleigh is held by Steven Holcomb (USA, 722), who came seventh in Winterberg. ©RWH2016-2017

Quotes:

Johannes Lochner (GER, 2016 Junior World Champion, sixth place in the 2016 World Championships)
“The start of the second heat, in particular, went really well and it was just a great run overall. Now we’re the European Champions.”

Nico Walther (GER, runner-up in the 2015 World Championships, fourth in the 2016 European Championships)
“Silver is definitely good. In the run-up to this race, I toyed with the idea that we could do pretty well in the four-man bob here in Winterberg after it went so well in the World Championships.”

Benjamin Maier (AUT, runner-up in the 2016 European Championships, fifth in the 2016 World Championships)
“I am really happy with bronze. Things didn’t go so well in training but we stepped things up for the race. Of course, we also had a bit of luck with the weather today. It all came together in the end.”