From Lake Placid, USA
(December 14, 2021) -Frank Del Duca slid himself closer to a North American Cup two-man bobsled title with a victory in Lake Placid.
Del Duca and brakeman Boone Niederhofer were competitive off the top, just .06 off the quick start of the race. They paired those starts with the fastest run in each heat on their way to a .23 second victory over Canadians Taylor Austin and Jay Dearborn.
Austin and Dearborn were just .06 back after the first heat. While their second run was once again solid, it wasn’t quite enough to keep up with the American duo.
The gold for Del Duca was his fourth straight in two-man bobsled competition, with victories in ever race held in the United States. He holds a 24 point lead in two-man NAC points over Taylor going into the final race of the season.
Kaizhi Sun and Qingze Wu finished with a bronze medal, one day after winning silver.
The United States’ Tyler Hickey came into the second heat in third place, but was jumped by Sun on the second run and would settle for fourth. Youngjin Suk of Korea and Canada’s Pat Norton rounded out the top six.
Lichtenstein’s Martin Kranz finished 12th in his second ever start in North America.
Results:
| Pos | Names | Nation | Bib | Start 1 | Start 2 | Run 1 | Run 2 | Finish |
| 1 | Del Duca / Niederhofer | USA | 6 | 5.25 | 5.26 | 56.34 | 56.67 | 1:53.01 |
| 2 | Austin / Dearborn | CAN | 7 | 5.23 | 5.23 | 56.40 | 56.84 | 1:53.24 |
| 3 | Sun / Wu | CHN | 11 | 5.19 | 5.19 | 56.78 | 57.00 | 1:53.78 |
| 4 | Hickey / Avery | USA | 8 | 5.34 | 5.36 | 56.69 | 57.25 | 1:53.94 |
| 5 | Suk / Park | KOR | 10 | 5.32 | 5.30 | 57.01 | 57.18 | 1:54.19 |
| 6 | Norton / Couturier | CAN | 13 | 5.32 | 5.32 | 57.28 | 57.59 | 1:54.87 |
| 7 | Bindilatti / Martins | BRA | 4 | 5.31 | 5.33 | 57.24 | 57.66 | 1:54.90 |
| 8 | Brown / John | TTO | 9 | 5.36 | 5.36 | 57.45 | 57.69 | 1:55.14 |
| 9 | Stephens / Wekpe | JAM | 5 | 5.39 | 5.38 | 57.47 | 57.89 | 1:55.36 |
| 10 | Silic / Starek | CRO | 11 | 5.48 | 5.50 | 57.78 | 57.98 | 1:55.76 |
| 11 | Edelman / Chen | ISR | 14 | 5.53 | 5.59 | 58.08 | 58.26 | 1:56.34 |
| 12 | Kranz / Uz | LIE | 3 | 5.62 | 5.60 | 58.30 | 58.66 | 1:56.96 |
| 13 | Bagge / Glenner-Frandsen | DEN | 15 | 5.49 | 5.44 | 58.56 | 58.61 | 1:57.17 |
| 14 | Ohanlon / Castelli | AUS | 16 | 5.50 | 5.57 | 58.88 | 59.02 | 1:57.90 |
| 15 | Klausz / Tu | VIE | 2 | 5.66 | 5.70 | 59.24 | 59.53 | 1:58.77 |
| 16 | dos Santos Ferreira / Sabino | BRA | 17 | 6.90 | 6.67 | 61.69 | 63.25 | 2:04.94 |
| DNS | Gadbois / Christofferson | USA | 12 | DNS |
