Johannes Lochner second in Winterberg ahead of season opener winner Nico Walther
Winterberg (RWH) Olympic Champion Francesco Friedrich (GER) has emerged as the winner of the second 4-man Bobsleigh race at the BMW IBSF World Cup in Winterberg. With his gold medal-winning crew from PyeongChang – Candy Bauer, Martin Grothkopp and Thorsten Margis – Friedrich fended off teammate Johannes Lochner with Marc Rademacher, Christopher Weber and Christian Rasp (GER, 0.36 seconds back) in second place. Third place in Winterberg went to Olympic silver medallist Nico Walther with Marko Hübenbecker, Alexander Rödiger, and Eric Franke (GER, 0.46 seconds back), who were using a new sled for the first time.
Austria’s Benjamin Maier with Kilian Walch, Markus Sammer and Danut Moldovan were lying third after the first heat but dropped back to fifth following problems at the start.
In the overall 4-man Bobsleigh standings of the BMW IBSF World Cup 2018/2019, Francesco Friedrich (GER, 425 points) leads after the second of eight races ahead of Nico Walther (GER, 425) and Johannes Lochner (GER, 410).
Further information, the World Cup results and the latest overall standings are available at ibsf.org. ©RWH2018
Francesco Friedrich (GER, World Champion 2018, World Champion 2017)
“We really didn’t get a good start first time around. But we were able to show what we are capable of in the second heat. We changed our equipment a bit since yesterday and, along with my experienced crew, I think it was a good step in the right direction.”
Johannes Lochner (GER, World Champion 2017)
“This was also a weekend of testing for me. For example we tried different runners from the first race and I also changed one of my brakeman.”
Nico Walther (GER, Olympic silver medallist 2018, World Championship silver medallist 2015)
“We got lucky with third place thanks to a mistake by the Austrians, but sometimes you need a bit of luck. I’m not too happy with the new sled in the moment, but at least I gained some valuable experience today.”
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