Johannes Lochner and Georg Fleischhauer won the bobsleigh season opener in China.
On the 2022 Olympic track, Lochner’s two-man bob was faster than that of Francesco Friedrich, who was 0.62 seconds behind with pusher Alexander Schüller and came second. In Yanqing in 2022, Friedrich confidently won gold in the two and four.
“Together we are still unbeaten in twosomes”said Lochner, looking at his pusher, “We will continue like this.” Friedrich recognized him “deserved victory” his teammate to: “Johannes was already better here in training, he has now confirmed that. At the start we were on the same level, but he rode better. The little things add up on this track.”
Lochner wants to continue to dominate Zweier
Lochner wants to defend his still relatively new supremacy in the small sled. Last winter, the Bavarian was crowned two-man world champion for the first time, ending Friedrich’s streak of seven titles.
Lochner also took overall victory in the World Cup, although he benefited from an injury to his competitor: Friedrich struggled with adductor problems from the turn of the year.
Swiss bobsleigh on the podium
The Swiss Michael Vogt and Sandro Michel came third in China (+0.90 seconds); they also took third place at the 2023 World Cup in St. Moritz.
Yanqing was the first of eight two-man bobsleigh races this World Cup season.