Next world title in four-man bobsleigh
Francesco Friedrich does it five times in a row
2/5/2023 6:03 p.m
“Horny, dude!” Francesco Friedrich and his crew can celebrate their fifth consecutive World Championship title in four-man bobsleigh. The success in St. Moritz was preceded by uncertain times. In the end, details and two outstanding runs decided.
Francesco Friedrich grinned happily and was immediately hugged by his pushers. The four-man bob dominator remains on the World Championship throne in the premier class. With his usual strength at the start, the record world champion raced to gold in St. Moritz. However, it was a difficult work victory, because the Brit Brad Hall took twelve hundredths of a second from him in the third run and put the two-time double Olympic champion from BSC Sachsen Oberbärenburg under enormous pressure.
The 32-year-old from Pirna and his crew, Thorsten Margis, Candy Bauer and Alexander Schüller, set one fastest time after the other, drove the ideal line in the last run and exuberantly celebrated the fifth title in a row in the big sled – it was his twelfth World Championship title overall. Hall made several mistakes in the last heat and had to share silver with the strong Latvian Emils Cipulis at the same time.
“We fine-tuned every detail again. New runners, different seating positions. Then every detail was right. The third run was mixed, but the second and fourth were so good that it was enough,” said Friedrich, while his long-time pusher Margis got out of the sled and called loudly to his pilot: “Geil, Dude!”. Barely five weeks after his muscle injury, this title was anything but a matter of course. “We’re almost always under pressure to win, but this time it was special,” emphasized Margis.
Two-man bobsleigh world champion Johannes Lochner, who, like on Saturday, had to change his team and this time put Kevin Korona in the sled for Georg Fleischhauer, who was suffering from a fever, had to console himself with fourth place. “Unfortunately, there was nothing more, now I’m going on vacation and going skiing,” said the Berchtesgadener. Christoph Hafer ended up sixth, Junior World Champion Nico Semmler finished eighth after four races.