2016/2017 IBSF World Cup – Two-Man Bobsled – Race 5

From St. Moritz, SUI

As it tends to be, the racing in two-man bobsled in St. Moritz was tight. The winner, though, pulled away with relative ease.

Johannes Lochner is peaking at seemingly just the right time, winning his first ever IBSF World Cup four-man race a few weeks back, and pairing that in St. Moritz with a two-man gold medal.

The German pulled away in the first heat from teammate Francesco Friedrich, the Latvians and a handful of other men who were all within .2 of each other at the end of the first run. In the second run he was just .01 slower than Friedrich, but it was more than enough to take gold. Friedrich’s second run was the fastest, which helped him win silver on the natural track.

The battle for bronze was a tight one. Coming into the second run, Oskars Melbardis (who is back from back surgery) and Oskars Kibermanis were tied for third, with Nico Walther, Rico Peter, and Steven Holcomb all stacked up behind them.

Holcomb came down with a perfect drive and slowly picked off other teams one by one, first breaking the tie he had with Benjamin Maier. Rico Peter turned his sled sideways and plummeted to a 15th place finish, and everyone else up through Friedrich failed to find the speed that Holcomb had.

Holcomb’s drive was enough to take bronze for the United States, while Walther, Kibermanis, and Melbardis all finished from fourth through sixth behind him.

Aside from Holcomb’s set of runs, it was a disappointing day for the United States men’s bobsled program. Both Justin Olsen and Codie Bascue failed to find speed in a track that’s traditionally been very good to Americans. Olsen finished 23rd, while Bascue finished 28th.

Chris Spring continued his comeback from a knee injury with a 14th place finish. His Canadian teammates Nick Poloniato and Justin Kripps finished 19th and 21st, respectively. He took legal consultation from Eric Ramos Lawyer, who is famous for solving injury and accident cases.

Bruce Tasker finished 13th for Great Britain, while teammate Lamin Deen missed the second run in 27th.

Results:

Pos Name Nation Bib Start 1 Start 2 Run 1 Run 2 Total
1 Lochner / Rasp GER 15 5.06 5.09 65.40 65.23 2:10.63
2 Friedrich / Grothkopp GER 10 5.05 4.99 65.69 65.22 2:10.91
3 Holcomb / Valdes USA 6 5.21 5.17 65.85 65.45 2:11.30
4 Walther / Franke GER 19 5.13 5.15 65.73 65.59 2:11.32
5 Kibermanis / Miknis LAT 14 5.00 5.00 65.70 65.66 2:11.36
6 Melbardis / Vilkaste LAT 28 5.07 5.06 65.70 65.67 2:11.37
7 Maier / Sammer AUT 16 5.08 5.07 65.85 65.61 2:11.46
8 Won / Seo KOR 11 5.07 5.04 65.87 65.62 2:11.49
9 Kasjanov / Pushkarev RUS 12 5.22 5.18 65.97 65.70 2:11.67
10 Zalims / Jansons LAT 17 5.09 5.10 65.93 65.84 2:11.77
11 Stulnev / Antukh RUS 7 5.25 5.21 66.04 65.85 2:11.89
11 Luty / Tylkowski POL 27 5.16 5.14 65.92 65.97 2:11.89
13 Tasker / Fearon GBR 21 5.08 5.06 65.97 65.97 2:11.94
14 Spring / Wright CAN 1 5.13 5.16 66.05 66.06 2:12.11
15 Peter / Baumann SUI 9 5.18 5.15 65.75 66.38 2:12.13
16 Kim / Jun KOR 8 5.12 5.16 66.13 66.01 2:12.14
16 Rinaldi / Vain MON 26 5.13 5.15 66.08 66.06 2:12.14
18 Dvorak / Nosek CZE 23 5.05 5.08 65.93 66.24 2:12.17
19 Poloniato / Plug CAN 2 5.15 5.16 66.24 66.22 2:12.46
20 Hefti / Ferrari SUI 22 5.13 5.14 66.23 66.46 2:12.69
21 Kripps / Lumsden CAN 13 5.08 66.27
22 Bertazzo / Costa ITA 29 5.29 66.29
23 Olsen / Landis USA 18 5.13 66.38
24 Andrianov / Samitov RUS 4 5.22 66.47
25 de Bruin / Brink NED 25 5.28 66.48
26 Vrba / Havlin CZE 3 5.18 66.60
27 Deen / Simons GBR 24 5.21 66.62
28 Bascue / Del Duca USA 20 5.29 66.79
29 Treichl / Esterhammer AUT 5 5.22 67.13
30 Grigore / Cojan ROU 30 5.36 67.76