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Francesco Friedrich continues as a road roller to grind victories in the bobsled World Cup. In Sankt Moritz, in the sixth season, Pirna's champion dominated first in the two-man bob, taking the sixth win over six races and then completing the work, including his four-man bobsled race.
Monday 28 January 2019 7 minutes reading time
The two-time Olympic champion a week ago in Igls has signed the best lap times in all four heats played in the two races scheduled, highlighting an embarrassing supremacy against the competition.
In the two-man bob the Pirna phenomenon debuted the young brakeman Alexander Schueller in his cockpit instead of the "usual" Thorsten Margis but the result has not changed. Friedrich has in fact closed with a margin of 40 cents on fellow countryman Johannes Lochner who in the second heat has overtaken the Latvian Oskars Kibermanis giving Germany the second consecutive double.
At the foot of the podium was an excellent Michael Vogt who finally brought Switzerland to the top positions, fifth the South Korean Won, while continues to work Nico Walther fourteenth still struggling with the 'injury that prevents him to push properly in departure.
Thanks to this sixth success, the twentieth anniversary of his career, Francesco Friedrich is more and more launched towards the conquest of his second Crystal Ball of a two-man bob. The German now has a margin of 146 points on Kibermanis and 422 on the Czech Dvorak, tenth in Sankt Moritz.
In the four-man bob Friedrich further destroyed the competition by winning 51 cents over his team-mate Lochner. Also in this race the twenty-eight of Saxony has benefited from excellent thrust times that were guaranteed by the brakes Schueller, Bauer and Grothkopp and then on the guided he designed perfect lines that allowed him to celebrate the fourth victory over six races.
The podium was again completed by Kibermanis who in the second heat has reassembled five positions reaching only 2 cents from Lochner. Worth mentioning the excellent fourth place ex-equo with the Russian Andrianov of the representative of the Principality of Monaco Rudy Rinaldi, and the incredible sixth position of Nico Walther that despite the physical problem has reached only 3 cents from the fourth place. In the general ranking Friedrich continues to lengthen the rest of the company. The German now has a margin of 73 points ahead of Lochner and 104 on Kibermanis.
In Sankt Moritz, he made his seasonal debut in the top of the bobsled the 'blue crew piloted by Patrick Baumgartner and fresh of the European Cup winner of four-man bobsled. On the demanding Swiss gut, the South Tyrolean driver behaved well in the four-man bob, where together with the brakes Simone Fontana, Alex Verginer and Lorenzo Bilotti was the protagonist of a first respectable descent closed to twelfth place. In the second heat, the 2012 Olympic Youth Champion in Innsbruck was not so precise, losing two positions, finishing in fifteenth place. A very encouraging result considering the fact that the top ten does not seem so far away being only 22 cents away.
There is still a lot to do in the two-man bob where Baumgartner and Verginer finished in twenty-first position, not qualifying for the final heat. The duo has also confirmed in the maximum circuit to still have a lot of work before being competitive in this discipline.
Among the women, the American Elana Meyers-Taylor prevents Germany from lengthening its seasonal unbeaten in the bobsled World Cup. The American driver and his brakeman Lauren Gibbs dominated the Swiss race closing with 60 cents of advantage on the German Stephanie Schneider and 76 cents on the leader of the general classification Mariama Jamanka.
Meyers-Taylor, who has competed in St. Moritz despite being feverish, gets the first success of the season that is a clear signal for rivals ahead of the long North American trip that will end with the world championships of Whistler. The Bob World Cup in fact now takes a long break to allow all athletes to move to Lake Placid where the seventh act of the season will be staged in mid-February.
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