Friedrich Wins Tight Igls 2-Man Race

From Igls, AUT

(Dec. 16, 2017) It’s been a tough start of the season for Francesco Friedrich, with the German only scoring one medal in a season he was expected to contend week in and week out.

Friedrich got things worked out for the first run in Igls, setting a time .11 ahead of anyone else. Behind him, Canada filled in the next three spots, all within .08 of each other. In fact, after the first run the difference from Justin Kripps in second back to Nico Walther in 13th was only .25.

Friedrich / Margis (Courtesy IBSF TV)

Despite the pressure from a tight field behind him, Friedrich’s second run mirrored his first, pulling away from the Canadians and winning by .27 over the field for his first two-man gold in the 2017/2018 season.

Justin Kripps finished second in what was another great race for the Canadian men. Clemens Bracher continued a great start to his IBSF World Cup two-man career with a bronze medal after Canadian Nick Poloniato was disqualified for the back end of his sled being four millimeters too tight.

Johannes Lochner finished fourth, while Nick Cunningham finished fifth and Chris Spring sixth..

The United States continued to improve from some early-season issues. Codie Bascue moved up from eighth to seventh in his second run, while Justin Olsen finished just .23 out of a top 10 in 13th place.

Chris Spring fell out of the top six by .02, and out of a medal by .18, finishing seventh. British sliders Bradley Hall and Bruce Tasker finished 20th and 21st, respectively.

Results:

Pos Names Nation Bib Start 1 Start 2 Run 1 Run 2 Total
1 Friedrich / Margis GER 6 5.03 4.99 51.89 51.82 1:43.71
2 Kripps / Lumsden CAN 12 5.06 5.04 52.00 51.98 1:43.98
3 Bracher / Kuonen SUI 18 5.10 5.10 52.09 52.02 1:44.11
4 Lochner / Bluhm GER 19 5.08 5.05 52.12 52.04 1:44.16
5 Cunningham / Abdul-Saboor USA 15 5.10 5.09 52.10 52.07 1:44.17
6 Spring / Wright CAN 8 5.14 5.11 52.08 52.11 1:44.19
7 Bascue / McGuffie USA 11 5.10 5.08 52.17 52.07 1:44.24
8 Kibermanis / Miknis LAT 13 5.08 5.03 52.13 52.14 1:44.27
9 Melbardis / Dreiskens LAT 16 5.08 5.10 52.18 52.11 1:44.29
10 Maier / Sammer AUT 20 5.08 5.08 52.23 52.21 1:44.44
11 Walther / Poser GER 9 5.13 5.11 52.25 52.24 1:44.49
12 Dvorak / Nosek CZE 21 5.07 5.07 52.19 52.31 1:44.50
13 Olsen / C. Fogt USA 10 5.09 5.09 52.29 52.23 1:44.52
14 Heinrich / Lefebvre FRA 5 5.22 5.18 52.38 52.29 1:44.67
15 Kasjanov / Pushkarev RUS 17 5.19 5.21 52.30 52.38 1:44.68
16 Peter / Amrhein SUI 14 5.15 5.16 52.37 52.33 1:44.70
17 Stulnev / Antukh RUS 23 5.22 5.21 52.37 52.36 1:44.73
17 Treichl / Bassey AUT 2 5.17 5.17 52.31 52.42 1:44.73
19 Hall / Gleeson GBR 4 5.10 5.10 52.37 52.51 1:44.88
20 Tasker / Fearon GBR 3 5.12 52.39
21 Andrianov / Mordasov RUS 1 5.20 52.41
22 Luty / Tylkowski POL 24 5.19 52.47
23 Rinaldi / Vain MON 22 5.25 52.52
24 Zalims / Springis LAT 25 5.14 52.74
DSQ de Bruin / van der Zijde NED 26 DSQ
DSQ Poloniato / Brown CAN 7 DSQ