Oskars Kibermanis is runner-up ahead of Olympic Champion Francesco Friedrich
Königssee (RWH) European Championship hat trick for 4-man Bobsleigh World Champion Johannes Lochner: Alongside Florian Bauer, Marc Rademacher and Christian Rasp, Lochner secured a first victory of the season in the large sleigh at the BMW IBSF World Cup in Königssee (GER), giving him his third consecutive title in the European Championships 4-man bob.
Oskars Kibermanis placed second in the World Cup standings with teammates Matiss Miknis, Arvis Vilkaste and Janis Strenga (0.18 seconds behind) and scored his first European Championship medal, taking home silver. Third place and bronze were taken by Olympic Champion in 4-man Bobsleigh, Francesco Friedrich, alongside teammates Candy Bauer, Martin Grothkopp and Alexander Schueller (GER, 0.22 seconds behind).
The Russian team, made up of Maxim Andrianov, Aleksey Zaytsev, Vasiliy Kondratenko and Ruslan Samitov, came in fourth, with Andrianov achieving the best result of his career.
The events in Königssee also saw the Dutch team of Ivo de Bruin, Joost Duman, Dennis Veenker and Janko Franjic, who took eighth position in the BMW IBSF World Cup and sixth in the European Championship standings, achieve their best result to date.
In the overall standings for the 2018/2019 BMW IBSF World Cup, Francesco Friedrich (GER, 860 points) asserted his lead over Johannes Lochner (GER, 827). Oskars Kibermanis (LAT, 804) starts the second half of the season in overall third place.
Further information, the World Cup and European Championships results and the latest overall standings are available at ibsf.org. ©RWH2019
Quotes
Johannes Lochner (GER, 2017 World Champion and 2017, 2018 + 2019 European Champion)
"I was feeling the pressure a bit there, I have to admit. We've been European Champions the last two years and there's no room for mistakes here on the home track. I'm really happy that everything worked out. The season can gladly keep moving in this direction - we're defenders of the World Cup title and current World Champions. The whole team is motivated to keep it up!"
Oskars Melbardis (LAT, 2018 Olympic tenth place, overall fourth place in the 2018 World Championships)
"I'm super happy about my first European Championship medal and the fact that I've placed in the top three in the World Cup for the first time here in Königssee. I've got a small injury, that's why the 2-man bob wasn't quite so good. But I've got strong pushers, so the 4-man race was much better. Obviously the track conditions were different to the ones we've been training with all week, but they were still good."
Francesco Friedrich (GER, Olympic Champion 2018, World Champion 2017)
"The others gave a better performance today, which was totally fair. My first run was a complete mess and the second wasn't anything special either. Any other result would have been undeserved. Still, a bronze medal is pretty good."
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