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With his debut victory, Friedrich also takes the overall World Cup victory
Four-man bobsleigh pilot Francesco Friedrich won in Lake Placid. photo
© Seth Wenig/AP
He clears away again. Francesco Friedrich also manages to do something in Lake Placid that he hasn’t managed to do before. A reward is already waiting.
After his debut success in the World Cup track next year and the sixth overall World Cup victory in the four-man bobsleigh, he was happy Francesco Friedrich is focused on one thing above all: vacation. “It’s the holidays, so we’re going to fly for a ride in the sun and relax a bit,” said the 33-year-old Saxon before leaving Lake Placid.
He had previously won the season finale on the ice track in the USA and left the competition behind for the first time with the big sled in Lake Placid. “We did really well on the track, are really happy and well prepared for the World Cup here next year,” said Friedrich.
On the demanding track at Mount van Hoevenberg, he and his crew Thorsten Margis, Matthias Sommer and Felix Straub put in a strong performance and relegated Johannes Lochner from Berchtesgaden to second place with a lead of 0.17 seconds. Adam Ammour from BRC Thuringia came third in the US state of New York.
Early termination
The race was initially interrupted for repair work in the second round after a crash directly in front of the three Germans. Since there wasn’t enough time for repairs, it was stopped completely after about half an hour and only the first run was counted.
“Many pilots destroyed their skids, so it was the right decision,” said Lochner. Head coach René Spies spoke of “a strange end”, but was overall happy: “The season is coming to an outstanding end, I can only say thank you to the entire team with an extremely successful home World Cup and an outstanding World Cup.”
With his fifth win of the season in the premier class, the two-time double Olympic champion Friedrich confidently took victory in the overall classification ahead of the Latvian Emils Cipulis and Lochner, who had one less race after his crash in Altenberg. After the World Cup double in Winterberg, Friedrich also won the overall World Cup in both disciplines and therefore also the crystal ball for the combination ranking.