Oskars Kibermanis is overall runner-up ahead of World Champion Johannes Lochner
Calgary (RWH) For the first time in his career, Olympic Champion Francesco Friedrich (GER) has come top of the overall standings in the 4-man bobsleigh at the World Cup. At the finals of the BMW IBSF World Cup 2018/2019 in Calgary (CAN), Friedrich and teammates Candy Bauer, Martin Grothkopp and Thorsten Margis enjoyed a 0.19 second lead over Olympic runner-up Nico Walther (GER) with his team of Paul Krenz, Alexander Rödiger and Eric Franke. The win marked Friedrich's fifth victory of the season. Johannes Lochner, who became joint World Champion in 4-man bobsleigh with Friedrich in 2017, finished third in the World Cup final with teammates Florian Bauer, Christopher Weber and Christian Rasp (0.21 seconds behind).
Alongside Lionel Lefebvre, Dorian Hauterville and Jerome Laporal, Romain Heinrich (FRA) came in eighth, giving the French team their first top-ten result in the World Cup for 4-man bobsleigh.
The BMW IBSF World Cup in Calgary also saw two 4-man bobsleigh teams from China take to the track for the first time. Pilots Yijun Shao and U23 World Champion Kaizhi Sun finished the races in 20th and 21st place.
In the overall standings of the 2018/2019 BMW/IBSF World Cup, winner Francesco Friedrich scored a total of 1727 points. With 1616 points, Latvia's Oskars Kibermanis, who placed fourth in Calgary, was overall runner-up ahead of Johannes Lochner (GER, 1605).
Francesco Friedrich with 3527 points also took the top spot in the World Cup combined standings from the 2-man and 4-man events - for the second time since 2017. Oskars Kibermanis (LAT, 3180) finished in overall second place once again. Olympic runner-up in PyeongChang, Nico Walther (GER, 2763), took third place in the combined standings at the BMW IBSF World Cup 2018/2019.
Further information, the World Cup results and the latest overall standings are available at ibsf.org. ©RWH2019
