From Igls, AUT
(November 28, 2021) – Francesco Friedrich beat out what was an otherwise tight field of sleds to win his second straight four-man race to start the season and fourth straight bobsled race in total for the 2021/2022 season.
Friedrich had what was, for him, a relatively sloppy first run to keep him within shouting distance of the field. His second run was better, and had plenty of speed to beat out everyone else behind him for his fourth gold medal to start the season.
In Friedrich’s four races between two-man and four-man he has yet to lose a single heat.
Behind Friedrich, the racing after one heat was tight, with second through sixth separated by only .05. On the second run it was the pilots in the back of that pack that made the big moves.
Oskars Kibermanis and Justin Kripps came into the second heat tied for sixth. Kibermanis broke the tie on the second run by .05 over Kripps. The two men then picked off Benjamin Maier, Rostislav Gaitiukevich, Hunter Church, and Johannes Lochner to move up into the medals, with Kibermanis winning silver and Kripps bronze.
Russia’s Rostislav Gaitiukevich was the first pilot out of the medals in fourth, only .02 behind Kripps.
The United States’ Hunter Church came into the second heat in third place, and while he couldn’t hang onto a medal, he did finish tied for fifth with Austria’s Benjamin Maier.
Great Britain’s Brad Hall and the United States’ came into the second heat tied for 11th. After two runs they were separated by just .02, with Hall getting the advantage to finish 11th. Bascue finished in 12th.
Lamin Deen helped Great Britain put two sleds in the top 20 with a 20th place finish. Canada’s Christopher Spring had trouble loading in his sled, and that scrubbed off any speed he needed to finish 24th.
Germany’s Christoph Hafer was disqualified after Christian Hammers got caught up trying to load in the sled. Hammers fell off the side of the sled and that led to the DSQ.
Results:
| Pos | Names | Nation | Bib | Start 1 | Start 2 | Run 1 | Run 2 | Total |
| 1 | Friedrich / Margis / Grothkopp / Schüller | GER | 7 | 5.01 | 5.01 | 50.83 | 50.99 | 1:41.82 |
| 2 | Kibermanis / Springis / Miknis / Dambis | LAT | 13 | 5.06 | 5.06 | 51.02 | 51.08 | 1:42.10 |
| 3 | Kripps / Sommer / Stones / Coakwell | CAN | 8 | 5.07 | 5.07 | 51.02 | 51.13 | 1:42.15 |
| 4 | Gaitiukevich / Mordasov / Zharovtsev / Travkin | RUS | 11 | 5.03 | 5.04 | 51.00 | 51.17 | 1:42.17 |
| 5 | Maier / Stepan / Sammer / Huber | AUT | 10 | 5.07 | 5.06 | 51.01 | 51.20 | 1:42.21 |
| 5 | Church / Williamson / Horn / Volker | USA | 5 | 5.08 | 5.06 | 50.99 | 51.22 | 1:42.21 |
| 7 | Lochner / Bauer / Weber / Rasp | GER | 9 | 5.03 | 5.02 | 50.97 | 51.28 | 1:42.25 |
| 8 | Andrianov / Pushkarev / Kondratenko / Gryaznov | RUS | 4 | 5.11 | 5.13 | 51.09 | 51.35 | 1:42.44 |
| 9 | Heinrich / Lefebvre / Delmestre / Laporal | FRA | 2 | 5.11 | 5.10 | 51.10 | 51.40 | 1:42.50 |
| 10 | Vogt / Knuser / Weber/ Michel | SUI | 6 | 5.15 | 5.15 | 51.22 | 51.35 | 1:42.57 |
| 11 | Hall / Lawrence / Blanchett / Cackett | GBR | 12 | 5.06 | 5.14 | 51.26 | 51.40 | 1:42.66 |
| 12 | Bascue / Valdes / Reed / Abdul-Saboor | USA | 17 | 5.06 | 5.11 | 51.26 | 51.42 | 1:42.68 |
| 13 | Dvorak / Sindelar / Prochazka / Nosek | CZE | 15 | 5.12 | 5.13 | 51.30 | 51.40 | 1:42.70 |
| 14 | Friedli / Fässler / Jones / Haas | SUI | 22 | 5.09 | 5.09 | 51.39 | 51.40 | 1:42.79 |
| 15 | Tentea / Dobre / Daroczi / Radu | ROU | 19 | 5.17 | 5.16 | 51.39 | 51.47 | 1:42.86 |
| 16 | Kaufmanis / Kleinbergs / L. Kaufmanis / Nemme | LAT | 23 | 5.06 | 5.07 | 51.45 | 51.43 | 1:42.88 |
| 17 | Treichl / Glück / Mitterer / Eckschlager | AUT | 24 | 5.10 | 5.15 | 51.41 | 51.51 | 1:42.92 |
| 18 | de Bruin / Franjic / Dumas / Huis In ‘t Veld | NED | 14 | 5.20 | 5.20 | 51.46 | 51.55 | 1:43.01 |
| 19 | Baumgartner / Mircea / Pagnini / Obou | ITA | 1 | 5.15 | 5.15 | 51.47 | 51.56 | 1:43.03 |
| 20 | Deen / Olubi / Fearon / Simons | GBR | 25 | 5.17 | 5.19 | 51.56 | 51.56 | 1:43.12 |
| 21 | Variola / Fantazzini / Verginer / Bilotti | ITA | 21 | 5.06 | 5.09 | 51.56 | 51.59 | 1:43.15 |
| 22 | Sun / Wu / Wu / Zhen | CHN | 26 | 5.10 | 51.57 | |||
| 23 | Won / Kim / Kim / Jung | KOR | 18 | 5.20 | 51.60 | |||
| 24 | Spring / Evelyn / Sorensen / Giguere | CAN | 16 | 5.11 | 51.61 | |||
| 25 | Shao / Liu / Ding / Ma | CHN | 3 | 5.17 | 51.71 | |||
| 26 | Shinohara / Kaneko / Murakami / Kurihara | JPN | 27 | 5.26 | 52.23 | |||
| 27 | Hafer / Salzer / Hammers / Schneider | GER | 20 | DSQ |
