Bobsleigh world champion Johannes Lochner left his idol Francesco Friedrich behind after his opening victory in the two-man bobsleigh on his first trip in the four-man bobsleigh. With 0.27 seconds ahead of Friedrich, Lochner won the second race on the Olympic track in Yanqing and continued his good run on the first World Cup weekend of the season. Third place went to the team led by Kaizhi Sun from China (+0.40 seconds).
With the second success, Lochner (Stuttgart) alongside Georg Fleischhauer, Florian Bauer and Erec Bruckert not only underlined his strong form at the start of the season, but also gave hope for many exciting World Cup duels with Friedrich (Oberbärenburg) this winter.
Last season, Lochner won his first World Championship gold in the pair and ended Friedrich’s series of seven titles. Bavaria is also the defending champion in the World Cup, but he also benefited from his triumph last season from an injury to Friedrich, who had to struggle with adductor problems from the turn of the year.
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The next duel follows on Sunday. Then the bobsleigh grandees will compete again in the final four-man race of the World Cup weekend in China.
Women’s race canceled
The women’s monobob and two-man bobsleigh races were canceled in Beijing due to a lack of participants due to logistical difficulties. The pilots around Olympic champion Laura Nolte will only start the new season at the World Cup in La Plagne (December 9th/10th).
