Bobsleigh
IBSF / Viesturs Lacis
Last weekend, the curtain fell on the bobsleigh World Cup along the curves of the splendid Olympia Bob Run in Sankt Moritz. The great classic of the calendar also awarded the European titles and above all delivered the last two Crystal Balls that were missing: those of the men's and women's two-way bob.
Monday 17 January 2022 6 minutes reading time
On the first day of competition, Francesco Friedrich and Thorsten Margis had no rivals, taking their seventh win of the season with a margin of 19 cents over the always competitive Kripps-Stones (Canada) and with 38 cents ahead of their compatriots Lochner-Bauer. The champion from Pirna, after dominating the entire season, faced the last round of the season with his usual attitude, finding splendid lines in the fastest section of the Swiss track that allowed him to make the difference on the other rivals.
With this victory, number 44 in the top bobsleigh circuit, Friedrich won the sixth Crystal Ball of his career in the specialty of two (the 10th overall ed) and at the same time he became European champion for the fourth time.
Friedrich, who on the eve of the Swiss race had announced the formation with which he will take part in the Olympic Games in Beijing, has decided in the two-man bobsleigh to take to the track with the same brakeman with whom he will face the five-ring appointment, while in the bob a quattro wanted to pay homage to Alexander Roediger, an unfortunate teammate who missed the entire season due to injury and who was not selected for the Olympics, offering him the opportunity to end his career on a big stage.
A choice of heart which, however, in fact prevented the German champion from ending the four-man bobsleigh season unbeaten. Without the help of Thorsten Margis, Friedrich was not able to make a difference in the push phase and this allowed his opponents to get closer and in the case of Kibermanis and Gaitiukevich also to overtake after the first round. In the second run, the Olympic champion set the new track record managing to recover a placement but it was not enough to survive the Latvian, who to the general amazement was crowned European champion returning to the top step of the podium after 5 very long years!
The podium of the four was completed by a sumptuous Gaitiukevich who preceded the excellent Christoph Hafer by just 2 cents and the "usual" Kripps by 10.
In the Italian home a decent performance by the driver Patrick Baumgartner, sixteenth in two with Alex Verginer and eighteenth in four with Ughi, Verginer and Bilotti.
In the female bobsleigh German apotheosis, with Kim Kalicki and Lisa Buckwitz who led the Made in Germany hat-trick. The young driver from Saxony earned her second success of the season, overcoming the two team campaigns in the last descent. Kalicki preceded by 4 cents the Olympic champion Mariama Jamanka and by 7 Laura Nolte who with the contemporary fifth place of Elana Meyers-Taylor was unable to overcome her in the general classification, allowing the American to raise her second Crystal Ball to the sky career.
In the last round of the World Series of monobob the success went to the two-time Olympic gold medalist Kaillie Humphries, while the overall title was won by Meyers-Taylor. In the Italian context, Giada Andreutti finished in eighteenth position, while in the two-man bobsleigh the Friulian paired with Elena Scarpellini came nineteenth.
In the evening, the International Federation issued official documents regarding the places assigned to each nation at the Beijing Olympics but the laborious qualification regulations raised several doubts among the experts. According to the first news, Italy should bring to China a crew in the two-man bobsleigh and one in the four-man bobsleigh, while in the female monobob Giada Andreutti would be the first of the excluded. In the coming days we will know more.
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