Olympic Champion Friedrich second in Sigulda, Maximilian Illmann surprisingly third
Sigulda (RWH) World Champion Johannes Lochner (GER) is on his way to his first overall 2-man bobsleigh victory in the BMW IBSF World Cup with now five wins in a row before the last race of the season.
In the seventh of the eight races for the 2022/2023 BMW IBSF World Cup, Lochner with pusher Georg Fleischhauer relegated Olympic Champion Francesco Friedrich (GER, 0.36 seconds back) with Alexander Schueller to second place.
Surprisingly on rank three in Sigulda: Junior World Champion of 2022 Maximilian Illmann (GER, 0,38 seconds back) with push athlete Joshua Tasche. In his third World Cup race Maximilian Illmann slid best time in the second run. In the end 0.02 seconds separated him from record World Champion Francesco Friedrich.
Local hero Emils Cipulis (LAT) finished fourth with Matiss Miknis on his home track.
Johannes Lochner (GER, 1517 points) extended his lead in the overall 2-man bobsleigh ranking of the 2022/2023 BMW IBSF World Cup to a good 70 points before the final in Sigulda on February 19. Overall second is defending World Cup champion Francesco Friedrich (GER, 1446) ahead of Brad Hall (GBR, 1390) who finished fifth in Sigulda.
For more detailed information including athlete profiles and results please visit ibsf.org. Photos for editorial use can be found at Flickr. ©RWH2023
Photos: IBSF / Viesturs Lacis
