Olympic champion Francesco Friedrich is reaching for his second gold and thus the historic double at the Winter Games in China.
The bobsleigh record world champion extended his lead in the four-man competition to 0.20 seconds ahead of Johannes Lochner in the third run. The final round will take place on Sunday morning (11:20 a.m. ET/4:20 a.m. CET).
Canadian Justin Kripps (+0.65) remains in bronze at the Yanqing Sliding Center. The third German starter Christoph Hafer is fourth (+0.73) only eight hundredths of a second behind, so another black-red-gold triple success as in the two is still possible. The Latvian Oskars Kibermanis is also involved in fifth place (+0.80) for bronze.
Friedrich, double champion of Pyeongchang, is the first bobsleigh pilot to repeat the Olympic double in China after his triumph in the small sled. If the 31-year-old prevails in the supreme discipline, he would draw level with Andre Lange, the most successful bobsleigh athlete in Olympic history, after winning gold medals.