From Lake Placid, USA
(March 8, 2025) – As it’s been more times than not over the course of the 2024/2025 season, Francesco Friedrich and Johannes Lochner are locked in a battle for gold, this time in the 2025 World Championships.
Friedrich and Alexander Schüller slid to a .1 advantage over Lochner and Georg Fleischhauer the first heat, with teammates Adam Ammour and Benedikt Hertel in third, only .16 out of the lead.
The three German teams were the last to go in the second heat, and once again it was Friedrich ahead of Lochner, adding another .04 to the advantage to take a .14 second lead into the final day of sliding Sunday morning.
Fredrich is on the hunt for his eighth world championship gold in two-man, while Lochner hopes to leapfrog Friedrich in the standings to win his second.
Behind the three Germans sits the United States’ Frank Del Duca. He and Charlie Volker had the fourth quickest start in each heat and the fourth quickest downtimes of each heat and trail Ammour by just .17 going into the third run on Sunday.
Michael Vogt and Andreas Haas sit fifth, .65 behind Del Duca, while Jinsu Kim and Hyeonggeun Kim are another .4 behind Vogt in sixth.
Great Britain’s Brad Hall is seventh, up from ninth in the first heat. He and Taylor Lawrence had a pair of top ten finishes and two top ten runs in their first two efforts.
Behind Del Duca, the United States had three solid runs over two heats. Geoffrey Gadbois and Bryce Cheek put down a pair of top ten runs on their way to an eighth place position after two heats. Kris Horn and Josh Williamson crashed in the first heat and entered the second run in 29th place, but a fifth quickest run in the second heat moved them up to 22nd overnight.
Taylor Austin is the top Canadian pilot going into the third heat on Sunday. He and Mike Evelyn slid to 12th after two runs, three spots ahead of Pat Norton and Shaq Murray-Lawrence in 15th.
Cyrus Gray and Kenny-Luketa M’Pindou are 24th, .02 ahead of Israel’s AJ Edelman and Regnars Kirejevs.
The third heat of two-man bobsled will kick off at 10:30 AM ET, with the fourth and final run at 12:30 PM.
Standings After Two Runs
| Pos | Name | Nation | Bib | Start 1 | Start 2 | Run 1 | Run 2 | Total |
| 1 | Friedrich / Schüller | GER | 1 | 5.13 | 5.19 | 54.64 | 55.11 | 1:49.75 |
| 2 | Lochner / Fleischhauer | GER | 2 | 5.14 | 5.05 | 54.74 | 55.15 | 1:49.89 |
| 3 | Ammour / Hertel | GER | 4 | 5.12 | 5.10 | 54.80 | 55.28 | 1:50.08 |
| 4 | Del Duca / Volker | USA | 10 | 5.15 | 5.11 | 54.90 | 55.35 | 1:50.25 |
| 5 | Baumgartner / Mircea | ITA | 5 | 5.28 | 5.26 | 55.67 | 55.16 | 1:50.83 |
| 6 | Vogt / Haas | SUI | 13 | 5.23 | 5.21 | 55.36 | 55.54 | 1:50.90 |
| 7 | Kim / Kim | KOR | 8 | 5.17 | 5.17 | 55.38 | 55.92 | 1:51.30 |
| 8 | Hall / Lawrence | GBR | 3 | 5.19 | 5.22 | 55.52 | 55.88 | 1:51.40 |
| 9 | Gadbois / Cheek | USA | 33 | 5.23 | 5.24 | 55.57 | 55.87 | 1:51.44 |
| 10 | Tentea / Iordache | ROU | 14 | 5.31 | 5.27 | 55.51 | 55.97 | 1:51.48 |
| 11 | Follador / Juillard | SUI | 7 | 5.34 | 5.34 | 55.46 | 56.11 | 1:51.57 |
| 12 | Kalenda / Miknis | LAT | 9 | 5.21 | 5.19 | 55.64 | 56.05 | 1:51.69 |
| 13 | Austin / Evelyn | CAN | 18 | 5.33 | 5.29 | 55.63 | 56.09 | 1:51.72 |
| 14 | Rohner / Jones | SUI | 6 | 5.23 | 5.23 | 55.69 | 56.08 | 1:51.77 |
| 15 | Norton / Murray-Lawrence | CAN | 19 | 5.31 | 5.26 | 55.84 | 56.08 | 1:51.92 |
| 16 | Li / Ye | CHN | 11 | 5.23 | 5.25 | 55.84 | 56.15 | 1:51.99 |
| 17 | Sun / Zhen | CHN | 15 | 5.26 | 5.25 | 55.84 | 56.15 | 1:51.99 |
| 18 | Vain / Riou | MON | 12 | 5.31 | 5.27 | 55.93 | 56.15 | 1:52.08 |
| 19 | Verginer / Ragazzi | ITA | 21 | 5.21 | 5.20 | 56.23 | 56.35 | 1:52.58 |
| 20 | Bindilatti / Martins | BRA | 28 | 5.29 | 5.32 | 56.21 | 56.37 | 1:52.58 |
| 21 | Pitter / Bucknor | JAM | 31 | 5.24 | 5.25 | 56.24 | 56.38 | 1:52.62 |
| 22 | Horn / Williamson | USA | 26 | 5.17 | 5.12 | 57.23 | 55.40 | 1:52.63 |
| 23 | Behounek / Dobes | CZE | 20 | 5.33 | 5.30 | 56.16 | 56.58 | 1:52.74 |
| 24 | Gray / M’Pindou | CAN | 24 | 5.29 | 5.33 | 56.49 | 56.85 | 1:53.34 |
| 25 | Edelman / Kirejevs | ISR | 22 | 5.44 | 5.44 | 56.43 | 56.94 | 1:53.37 |
| 26 | Ferreira / da Silva | BRA | 27 | 5.29 | 5.28 | 56.65 | 56.84 | 1:53.39 |
| 27 | Peters / Forst | AUS | 32 | 5.43 | 5.42 | 57.00 | 57.34 | 1:54.34 |
| 28 | Scott / Castelli | AUS | 25 | 5.49 | 5.49 | 57.29 | 57.44 | 1:54.73 |
| 29 | Prochazka / Rapp | CZE | 23 | 5.30 | 5.39 | 57.09 | 57.65 | 1:54.74 |
| 30 | Mandlbauer / Bertschler | AUT | 17 | 5.28 | 5.28 | 55.95 | 60.54 | 1:56.49 |
| 31 | Palakai / Donpritee | THA | 30 | 5.45 | 5.51 | 58.54 | 58.56 | 1:57.10 |
| DNS | Baird / Butterworth | GBR | 16 | 5.31 | 60.57 | DNS | ||
| DNS | Suk / Jung | KOR | 29 | DNS |