After winning the 4-man bobsleigh race in St. Moritz (SUI), the World Champion Johannes Lochner (GER) looks set to win his first overall title in the BMW IBSF World Cup. After two runs on the Olympia Bobrun St. Moritz-Celerina, Lochner and his squad – made up of Sebastian Mrowka, Joshua Bluhm and Christian Rasp – gained a 0.14-second lead over team mate Francesco Friedrich and his squad. On his second run, Friedrich –who shared the 4-man bobsleigh World Championship title with Lochner in 2017 – set new records for both the starting time (4.97 seconds) and track time (1:04.15 minutes) in St. Moritz with his push team of Candy Bauer, Martin Grothkopp and Thorsten Margis.
Third place went to the Canadian team of Chris Spring/Bryan Barnett/Lascelles Brown/Neville Wright (0.53 seconds back).
Nico Walther of Germany was disqualified after the first run when in the bronze medal position for a technical rule infringement, it was deemed that his sled was under the minimum weight limit.
Great Britain had two sleds in the event, Bard Hall piloting the first sled with Nick Gleeson, Greg Cackett and Joel Fearon finished 10th whilst the second sled piloted by Lamin Deen with Andy Matthews, Toby Olubi and Ben Simons finished in 19th slot from 25 finishers.
One team in St. Moritz who celebrated by far their best result in the BMW IBSF World Cup was Monaco. Rudy Rinaldi/Boris Vain/Thibault Demarthon/Steven Borges Mendonaca finished in eighth.
In the overall standings for the 2017/2018 BMW IBSF World Cup, Johannes Lochner (GER, 1,460 points) has now further extended his lead ahead of the final in Königssee (GER, 19 to 21 January). Francesco Friedrich (GER, 1,292) is now second ahead of Justin Kripps of Canada (1,252), who finished 16th in St. Moritz.
The IBSF will announce the 2018 Olympic quota slots next week following the latest rounds of IBSF competitions, Racer Ready will be previewing the 2018 Winter Olympic Games in the coming weeks.
RacerReady will be reporting the results and views from the world cup races immediately the action finishes.
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