Johannes Lochner finishes second ahead of Justin Kripps in third place

Innsbruck (RWH) Bobsleigh pilot Francesco Friedrich (GER) remains the benchmark in 2-man bobsleigh at the BMW IBSF World Cup in the 2021/2022 Olympic winter.

Since November 2020, the Olympic, World and European Champion has only once had to concede the top spot on the podium to a competitor in 14 2-man bobsleigh World Cups. That was in December 2020 in Innsbruck - at that time, team-mate Johannes Lochner was able to challenge Friedrich for the victory. This time Friedrich celebrated his second victory of the season in the second race at the same venue. With push athlete Thorsten Margis, the defending World Cup champion was 0.36 seconds ahead of second-placed Johannes Lochner/Christian Rasp (GER).

Olympic Champion Justin Kripps from Canada (0.48 seconds behind), who missed the World Cup podium at the season opener in fourth place by only one hundredth of a second, came in third this time with push athlete Cameron Stones.

Rostislav Gaitiukevich from Russia, who celebrated his first podium in Innsbruck in January 2021, just missed the podium this time and finished fourth with Mikhail Mordasov.

U23 World and European Champion Mihai Tentea from Romania set his best World Cup result in Innsbruck: The 22-year-old finished seventh with Ciprian Daroczi.

In the overall ranking for the BMW IBSF World Cup 2021/2022, Francesco Friedrich (GER, 450 points) leads ahead of Johannes Lochner (GER, 420) and Justin Kripps (CAN, 392).

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