Bob: EC: Lochner wins ahead of Friedrich in a four-man event

World champion Johannes Lochner (Stuttgart) has led a double victory of the German four-man bobsleigh at the European Championships in Igls. Eight weeks before the Olympic Games, the 27-year-old won on Sunday ahead of co-champion Francesco Friedrich.

Nico Walther (both Oberbärenburg) finished fourth in the European Championship behind Latvians Oskars Melbardis. In the World Cup classification, only Canadian Justin Kripps broke the European dominance, he occupied second place behind Lochner.

This marked the end of a strong European Championship for the German bobsleigh federation BSD on Sunday. Friedrich had won the title in two-man bobsleigh on Saturday, and in Igls the Saxon also achieved his first World Cup victory of the season.

Surprisingly, the women even managed a triple EC victory, Stephanie Schneider (Oberbärenburg) prevailed over Mariama Jamanka (Oberhof) and Anna Köhler (Winterberg).

In bobsleigh, the European Championships will be held as part of a World Cup race in which the non-European starters will be removed from the result. However, German women were also able to keep up with the strong competition from North America.

Schneider was unbeatable, world champion Elana Meyers Taylor from the USA came second ahead of Jamanka. Olympic champion Kaillie Humphries (Canada) had to settle for fourth place ahead of Köhler.

Only the men’s pair were worried beyond Friedrich’s strong performance. Only the Oberbärenburger was able to keep the strong Canadians in check, he relegated Justin Kripps and Nick Poloniato to second and third place. For Lochner it was enough to reach third and fifth place in the World Cup, Walther only took seventh and twelveth place.