Olympic Champion Lisa Buckwitz with first podium finish as pilot
Altenberg (GER) Hans-Peter Hannighofer (GER, 2-man bobsleigh), Stephanie Schneider (GER, 2-woman bobsleigh) and Canadian Chris Spring (4-man bobsleigh) won the races in Altenberg for the 2020/2021 IBSF Europe Cup.
In the first of the two 2-man bobsleigh races Hannighofer/Christian Röder won ahead of 2016 Youth Olympic Champion Jonas Jannusch with Christian Ebert (GER). Third place went to Canadians Chris Spring/Mark Mlakar. For Spring, the 2019 World Championships fourth-place finisher, it was the first international race in almost two years after an injury-related break last winter.
The second race was won by Hans-Peter Hannighofer with push athlete Marcel Kornhardt ahead of Chris Spring with Mike Evelyn and Austrians Markus Treichl/Gregor Glaboniat.
In 2-woman bobsleigh the overall World Cup winner of 2020 Stephanie Schneider (GER) with Claudia Schüssler won the Europe Cup of Altenberg. Second place went to Lisa Buckwitz (GER) with Cynthia Kwofie. For Buckwitz, who had won Olympic gold in PyeongChang in 2018 pushing Mariama Jamanka, it was the first international podium finish as a bobsleigh pilot. The bronze medal in Altenberg went to Canada's Alysia Rissling/Erica Voss. Pilot Rissling, like teammate Chris Spring, had also not competed in any races since March 2019 due to injury.
In 4-man bobsleigh, the Europe Cup victory in Altenberg went to Chris Spring's team ahead of the two German sleds of Maximilian Illmann and Hans-Peter Hannighofer. ©RWH2021
Photos: IBSF
