Johannes Lochner second in Lake Placid ahead of Francesco Friedrich
Lake Placid (RWH): Bobsleigh pilot Justin Kripps of Canada has secured his second victory in the 4-man bobsleigh at the BMW IBSF World Cup in Lake Placid. Racing with his brake crew of Ryan Sommer, Cameron Stones and Ben Coakwell, the World Championship bronze medallist was the quickest pilot in both heats. The Canadian won his fourth World Cup race in the 4-man event with a 0.30-second lead over second place.
The silver-medal spot in Lake Placid went to the 2017 World Champion Johannes Lochner (GER), racing with Florian Bauer, Christopher Weber and Christian Rasp. Another three hundredths of a second behind Lochner came Francesco Friedrich (GER) with Candy Bauer, Martin Grothkopp and Thorsten Margis in third. After finishing fourth in the first race, the Olympic Champion, World Champion and defending World Cup title holder therefore made it onto the 4-man podium for the first time this winter.
Only just missing out on the World Cup podium this time around was the World Championship runner-up Oskars Kibermanis with Lauris Kaufmanis, Arvis Vilkaste and Matiss Miknis. The Latvian team finished in fourth just 0.02 seconds behind Friedrich.
Racing in front of a home crowd, the best result for a US team in Lake Placid came from Hunter Church with Joshua Williamson, James Reed and Kyle Wilcox. Fifth place marks the best World Cup result in the 4-man bobsleigh to date for the 23-year-old pilot.
After the second of eight races in the 2019/2020 BMW IBSF World Cup, the unbeaten Justin Kripps (CAN, 450 points) leads the overall standings ahead of Oskars Kibermanis (LAT) and Johannes Lochner (GER) who are tied on 402 points.
Further information, the World Cup results and the latest overall standings are available at ibsf.org, many photos of all races at Flickr / IBSFsliding. ©RWH2019
