Francesco Friedrich makes history in Altenberg! Sixth consecutive world title and Monti's record beaten

Francesco Friedrich wins in Altenberg and sets the new record of consecutive world championships in the two-man bobsleigh. The German champion on the home floor literally dominated the two days of World Championship races, setting the best time trials in all four races.

Sunday 23 February 2020 6 minutes reading time

The thirty-year-old from Pirna accompanied as usual by the brakeman Thorsten Margis has trimmed heavy detachments to the rest of the competition, closing with a margin of 1 "65 of advantage over his compatriot Johannes Lochner (to the third silver of the career ndr) and 1" 79 on the Latvian Oskars Melbardis good at winning the first medal in the final descent at the expense of the Teutonic Nico Walther (fourth ed) and Richard Oelsner (fifth ed). Friedrich, who last year won all the races on the World Cup bobsleigh two-pair calendar, also leads to a single detachment from the record of the legendary Eugenio Monti who between 1957 and 1966 won 7 world titles, 5 of the which consecutively. If the Altenberg track rewarded the home team, who placed 4 crews in the first 5 places in the ranking, the Saxony gut also condemned the non-European athletes. In fact, if we take into consideration the final ranking, the top ten is made up entirely of crews from the "old continent", with the Austrian Maier in sixth place, the Swiss Friedli and Vogt in the seventh and eighth, in the ninth the French Heinrich and in tenth place the surprising Romanian Mihai Cristian Tentea. Unfortunately, in the top positions of the ranking, the blue colors continue not to be seen. In Altenberg, the Italian team collected the twentieth place of the duo Patrick Baumgartner and Costantino Ughi as the best result, while Mattia Variola and Alex Verginer placed in the twenty-fifth place. In the women's field, the world title went to the American Kaillie Humphries and Lauren Gibbs. The North American partnership did not betray the expectations of the eve, conquering 3 of the 4 heats scheduled, preceding by 37 cents the talented German Kim Kalicki who, two weeks before the junior gold medal, wore the first important medal to his neck in the senior category. Third place and bronze medal for the surprising Canadian Christine De Bruin, who with a good final heats exceeded the title holder Mariama Jamanka by just 14 cents. The top five is completed by the new winner of the Crystal Ball Stephanie Schneider who never gave the impression of being at ease on the Saxon gut. For Humphries world champion 2012 and 2013, therefore comes the third world gold of his career, the first, however, with the colors of the United States which in turn rise to share 3 world titles, after the triumphs of Elana Meyers-Taylor in 2015 and 2017 . World debut absolutely to forget for the Italian colors. Both crews in the race left the world championship competition after the first two descents. In particular Tania Vicenzino and Lucrezia Tavella, eighteenth after the first heat, turned upside down in the second and were accompanied for tests in the hospital. The case tests excluded important complications, with a slight concussion for the former and ankle sprain for the latter. Instead, Giada Andreutti and Silvia Taini are disqualified. The world championship bobsleigh program includes the expected four-man bobsleigh race in 7 days. In the meantime, the skeleton athletes will enter the scene with the world heats which will be held between Thursday 27 and Saturday 29 February.