Benjamin Maier wins silver in Altenberg ahead of Johannes Lochner with bronze
Altenberg (RWH) Four athletes, four World Championships, four titles: bobsleigh pilot Francesco Friedrich (GER) took gold in 4-man bobsleigh for the fourth time at the BMW IBSF World Championships 2021 in Altenberg (GER) - and is the first pilot to achieve this at four consecutive World Championships. Friedrich previously took the title in the large sled in 2017, 2019 and 2020.
With Thorsten Margis, Candy Bauer and Alexander Schueller as his push crew, Friedrich was 0.79 seconds ahead of second place at the end of the fourth and decisive race run in Altenberg.
4-man bobsleigh silver in Altenberg went to the team of pilot Benjamin Maier (AUT) with Danut Moldovan, Markus Sammer and Kristian Huber. The last World Cup medal for Austria in a bobsleigh race was in 1995 in Winterberg (GER) by Hubert Schösser, who also won silver in the 4-man bobsleigh with Gerhard Redl, Thomas Schöll and Martin Schützenauer. In 2016 in Innsbruck (AUT), the team from Austria took bronze in the team competition from the disciplines skeleton and 2-man bobsleigh.
The bronze medal at the BMW IBSF World Championships in Altenberg went to Johannes Lochner (GER) with Florian Bauer, Christopher Weber and Christian Rasp. Lochner, the 2017 World Champion and 2020 silver medallist, finished 1.51 seconds behind Friedrich.
Rostislav Gaitiukevich (BFR, Bobsleigh Federation of Russia), the 2020 Junior World Champion, finished sixth with Mikhail Mordasov/Ilya Malykh/Ruslan Samitov in his World Championships debut in the 4-man bobsleigh, tied with Christoph Hafer's (GER) team.
Junior World Champion Michael Vogt (SUI) finished 13th with Silvio Weber, Sandro Michel (replaced by Oliver Gyger in the third and fourth run due to injury) and Andreas Haas.
In the list of 4-man bobsleigh pilots with the most World Championship titles, Francesco Friedrich moves up to second place as the 2021 World Champion, alongside his compatriot Wolfgang Hoppe. Hoppe won gold at 4-man bobsleigh World Championships in 1991, 1995 and 1997 and was Olympic Champion in 1984. At that time, Olympic Champions also counted as World Champions for the year in question, without an additional race. The record World Champion in 4-man bobsleigh is André Lange (GER), who won five titles between 2000 and 2008.
For more detailed information including athlete profiles and results please visit ibsf.org. Photos for editorial use can be found at Flickr. ©RWH2021
Photos: IBSF / Viesturs Lacis
