From Altenberg, GER
(December 19, 2021) – Francesco Friedrich finished the calendar year perfect in both two-man and four-man bobsled, and capped the year off with a gold in Altenberg.
Friedrich carried a .13 second lead over Canada’s Justin Kripps into the second heat, with Benjamin Maier, Oskars Kibermanis, and Rostislav Gaitiukevich after setting a race-fastest run of a 54.37 in the first heat. On the second run it was Gaitiukevich making the big jump, as he set the quick time of the eat to jump from fifth up to the medals in third.
Kripps’s team gave him another quality start with a 5.18 off the top. He matched that with the third quickest run of the heat, plenty enough to stay ahead of the young Russian with just Friedrich to go.
As the air sirens went off at the top of the track in Altenberg, so did Friedrich’s team. They gave him the quickest start of the race, and he matched that with another strong run to slide into the lead and win the final race of the year and his 21st ever four-man bobsled gold.
Kripps finished with silver, and Gaitiukevich bronze.
Austria’s Benjamin Maier finished fourth, ahead of Oskars Kibermanis in fifth. Michael Vogt moved his Swiss sled from seventh to finish sixth.
Brad Hall was picked off Vogt to be knocked out of the top six, but did finish seventh. He finished the first half of the season with only one finish outside of the top ten in four-man.
Canada’s Chris Spring moved up from a tie for 17th in the first heat to finish 15th with a strong second run.
Hunter Church led the way for the United States with a 13th place effort. Teammate Codie Bascue finished a few spots back in 17th.
Great Britain’s Lamin Deen had what appeared to be a clean drive, but the sled seemingly had no speed in it. He finished 23rd.
Germany’s Johannes Lochner finished 21st.
Results:
| Pos | Names | Nation | Bib | Start 1 | Start 2 | Run 1 | Run 2 | Total |
| 1 | Friedrich / Margis / Grothkopp / Schüller | GER | 8 | 5.11 | 5.11 | 54.37 | 54.51 | 1:48.88 |
| 2 | Kripps / Sommer / Stones / Coakwell | CAN | 6 | 5.17 | 5.18 | 54.50 | 54.66 | 1:49.16 |
| 3 | Gaitiukevich / Mordasov / Travkin / Laptev | RUS | 11 | 5.17 | 5.12 | 54.74 | 54.49 | 1:49.23 |
| 4 | Maier / Moldovan / Sammer / Huber | AUT | 5 | 5.20 | 5.20 | 54.59 | 54.68 | 1:49.27 |
| 5 | Kibermanis / Springis / Kaufmanis / Nemme | LAT | 4 | 5.23 | 5.20 | 54.71 | 54.84 | 1:49.55 |
| 6 | Vogt / Knuser / Rolli / Michel | SUI | 9 | 5.20 | 5.17 | 54.78 | 54.94 | 1:49.72 |
| 7 | Hall / Lawrence / Gleeson / Cackett | GBR | 7 | 5.14 | 5.12 | 54.75 | 54.99 | 1:49.74 |
| 8 | Heinrich / Lefebvre / Demarthon / Laporal | FRA | 21 | 5.22 | 5.21 | 54.85 | 55.16 | 1:50.01 |
| 9 | Hafer / Koller / Ammour / Wobeto | GER | 14 | 5.26 | 5.29 | 54.99 | 55.04 | 1:50.03 |
| 10 | Baumgartner / Fantazzini / Verginer / Bilotti | ITA | 22 | 5.25 | 5.28 | 55.12 | 54.93 | 1:50.05 |
| 10 | Treichl / Mitterer / Glück / Eckschlager | AUT | 19 | 5.26 | 5.31 | 54.87 | 55.18 | 1:50.05 |
| 12 | Friedli / Fässler / Jones / Haas | SUI | 16 | 5.20 | 5.23 | 55.27 | 54.95 | 1:50.22 |
| 13 | Church / Williamson / Abdul-Saboor / Volker | USA | 13 | 5.23 | 5.23 | 55.06 | 55.19 | 1:50.25 |
| 14 | Andrianov / Pushkarev / Kondratenko / Zharovtsev | RUS | 12 | 5.23 | 5.24 | 55.03 | 55.29 | 1:50.32 |
| 15 | Spring / Evelyn / Sorensen / Gray | CAN | 17 | 5.27 | 5.26 | 55.28 | 55.06 | 1:50.34 |
| 16 | Dvorak / Sindelar / Zalesky / Nosek | CZE | 15 | 5.23 | 5.26 | 55.16 | 55.23 | 1:50.39 |
| 17 | Bascue / Valdes / Taylor / Horn | USA | 2 | 5.21 | 5.20 | 55.28 | 55.16 | 1:50.44 |
| 18 | Won / Kim / Kim / Jung | KOR | 1 | 5.27 | 5.28 | 55.07 | 55.39 | 1:50.46 |
| 19 | Tentea / Dobre / Daroczi / Radu | ROU | 20 | 5.29 | 5.30 | 55.34 | 55.15 | 1:50.49 |
| 20 | Variola / Mircea / Pagnini / Obou | ITA | 3 | 5.22 | 5.25 | 55.34 | 55.96 | 1:51.30 |
| 21 | Lochner / Bauer / Weber / Rasp | GER | 10 | 5.19 | 55.36 | |||
| 22 | de Bruin / Huis in ‘Veld / Franjic / Veenker | NED | 18 | 5.35 | 55.60 | |||
| 23 | Deen / Blanchet / Simons / Fearon | GBR | 23 | 5.27 | 55.64 | |||
| 24 | Shinohara / Hamano / Kaneko / Murakami | JPN | 24 | DNS |
