After Francesco Friedrich and Johannes Lochner, Adam Ammour was the reliable third force among the German bobsleigh pilots last winter and also finished third in the overall World Cup. This season he wanted to launch an attack on the top duo, but the season is going far from what he hoped.
Bobsleigh pilot Adam Ammour and his pusher Nick Stadelmann actually wanted to really get going in the season at the World Cup in Sigulda, Latvia, but the plan backfired.
Two falls in the two-man bobsleigh in the runs on Saturday, in which he landed on his head and slid down the rest of the track, and a fall in the first run on Sorgten ensured that he did not compete in the final.
A used weekend for the Hessian, of all places, on the track where he completely unexpectedly became European champion in 2023 with his brother Issam as the pusher.
Ammour: “You always ask yourself what it was about”
“We crashed twice in two runs. I couldn’t correct my mistake from the first run“, the 23-year-old was still arguing on Saturday and then used a classic of sports reporting to find the cause: “Now I don’t know what it was. In the end you always ask yourself what the problem was.“
The most important thing for him is that his pusher is doing well, said Ammour, who looked ahead: “Head up!“. Especially since the start of the season in Altenberg the previous week was reasonably promising. In the two-man bobsleigh, Ammour made it to the podium behind Francesco Friedrich and Johannes Lochner. In the four-man bobsleigh, he narrowly missed out on this.
Ammour skips Sunday
National coach René Spies also confirmed that the German men in Sigulda “then a few problems“. Ammour in particular received encouragement from his boss. After the three horror rides, the athlete and coach decided together not to take part in the second round on Sunday. This happened, “because he simply had no concept“.
One passage in particular was difficult for the German pilots and especially Ammour. “Especially with Franz (Francesco Friedrich), passage 13.14 was really critical. He handled it really well, but that wasn’t far from the fall either“, Spies analyzed the last race weekend of the year.
“Licking wounds” among the German bobsleigh pilots
The best thing about this weekend was that all the athletes were able to leave Latvia healthy, said head coach Spies. “Now it’s time to lick wounds, prepare well for the second half of the season and then come tracks that aren’t so exciting“, Spies looked forward, but also held his team accountable.”Today it became clear that we have to be really good at bobsledding and if we don’t do that, the others will be there.“