Helicopter in use
Heavy fall overshadows World Cup
January 5, 2025 – 6:36 p.mReading time: 2 minutes
Francesco Friedrich lost to Briton Brad Hall despite the best starting times. However, the four-man bobsleigh World Cup is overshadowed by serious falls.
Francesco Friedrich was unable to stand up to the strong Brit Brad Hall in the four-man bobsleigh, despite having the best starting times in the ice track. The 2023 vice world champion won the World Cup in Winterberg with a lead of 0.19 seconds over the two-time double Olympic champion from Pirna. Third place went to Adam Ammour from BRC Thuringia, who had to survive a serious fall in the final training with the big sled. The new father Johannes Lochner from Berchtesgaden only came in sixth.
Even though a so-called safety sled with measurement technology was just presented in Winterberg in collaboration with a German sponsor, it could not prevent the many falls in the four-man bobsleigh in adverse conditions with fog and constant rain.
The four-man bobsleigh race even had to be postponed after a track sled suffered a serious fall. Apparently an inmate was injured. According to information from the German Press Agency, he received emergency medical care immediately.
After three more falls in the race due to driving errors, the competition was continued after the jury’s deliberations – parallel to this jury’s decision, the helicopter with the injured person took off. According to information from railway boss Stephan Pieper, he was flown to a special clinic in Dortmund with “back problems”.
Meanwhile, after winning the monobob with a track record, Lisa Buckwitz also won the two-man bobsleigh. The world champion raced past the leading Olympic champion Laura Nolte in the second run. With a lead of just a hundredth of a second, she won with Kira Lipperheide ahead of Nolte, who drove with Deborah Levi. Kim Kalicki from Wiesbaden completed the German triple success with Leonie Fiebig.
“The first run was my fault; there were difficult conditions with snow and rain. It’s good that it was enough for first place in the end,” said Buckwitz. Nolte from Winterberg failed again at the opening curve, just like in the mono sled. “If you lead by three tenths after the first run, then you think it’s a sure thing. But when you’re driving against zero, it’s annoying,” said Nolte.