Brad Hall in second place in Winterberg ahead of Johannes Lochner
Winterberg (RWH) Olympic and World Champion Francesco Friedrich celebrated his third 4-man bobsleigh victory in the fourth race of the season at the BMW IBSF World Cup in Winterberg (GER) - despite a muscle injury from sprint training at the end of December. Thorsten Margis, Candy Bauer and Alexander Schueller as a pusher team helped pilot Friedrich to competitive start times and thus laid the foundation for World Cup victory number 25 in the big sled.
Second place in Winterberg went to Brad Hall with Arran Gulliver, Taylor Lawrence and Greg Cackett (GBR, 0,18 seconds back) ahead of Olympic silver medallist Johannes Lochner (GER, 0,20 seconds back) with Florian Bauer, Erec Bruckert and Christian Rasp.
Christoph Hafer/Michael Salzer/Matthias Sommer/Tobias Schneider (GER) and Markus Treichl with Sascha Stepan, Markus Sammer and Sebastian Mitterer (AUT), after the first race run in second and third place, missed the World Cup podium in the end and finished fourth and sixth.
In the overall standings for the 2022/2023 BMW IBSF World Cup, defending champion Francesco Friedrich (GER, 885 points) extended his lead in the standings with his third victory of the season. Brad Hall (GBR, 837) is second ahead of Johannes Lochner (GER, 778).
For more detailed information including athlete profiles and results please visit ibsf.org. Photos for editorial use can be found at Flickr. ©RWH2023
Francesco Friedrich (GER, 2018 and 2022 Olympic champion, four times World Champion)
"You can only do that with a super team that stands behind you and has your back. When you work hand in hand and get the best out of everything. I rate my chances of recovery as very good, we are making a little progress every day."
Brad Hall (GBR, sixth at the 2022 Winter Olympics)
„This weekend has been tough, my driving hasn’t been great. But I still came away with two medals. To be sixth today after the first heat was quite disappointing. We then rectified it with the best start time in second run, my brakemen did an amazing job.“
Johannes Lochner (GER, 2022 Olympic silver medalist)
"Today we got away with that, after all we were still in fifth place after the first run. We definitely have to do something about the start times, we won't win anything like that. There's still some work to do."
Photos: IBSF / Viesturs Lacis
