Francesco Friedrich drove to his fifth consecutive world four-man bobsled championship on Sunday, ending yet another dominant showing for Germany at the season’s biggest competition in St. Moritz, Switzerland.
Friedrich, also the two-time defending Olympic champion in the four-man event, and his team of Thorsten Margis, Candy Bauer and Alexander Schuller finished four runs over two days in four minutes 19.61 seconds.
That time was 0.69 seconds ahead of the drivers who shared second place. Brad Hall of Britain and Emils Cipulis of Latvia both got their sleds across the line in 4:20.30.
Out of six events at the world championships — men’s skeleton, women’s skeleton, two-man, four-man, women’s bobsled and women’s monobob — Germany claimed five gold medals and eight of a possible 18 medals overall. Britain grabbed the other gold when Matt Weston won the men’s skeleton title.
On Saturday, Friedrich finished his first two runs in 2:09.83, putting him ahead of Britain’s Brad Hall (2:10.03) and Latvia’s Emila Cipulis (2:10.41).
Canada had a pair of sleds in the event, led by Taylor Austin, Davidson De Souza, Shaq Murray-Lawrence and Cyrus Gray placing 13th of 20 finishers. Their time of 4:23.70 fell 4.09 seconds back of Friedrich.
Taylor, from Calgary, ranked 13th after Saturday’s two runs.
Humphries tops U.S. squad
Pat Norton’s Canadian crew was last in 4:26.76 on Sunday. William Ashley, Kenny–Luketa M’Pindou and David Caixeiro are the other members.
The United States tied for second with Britain in the overall medal standings at the world championships with two, both captured by Kaillie Humphries. She won silver in monobob and teamed with Kaysha Love for bronze in the two-woman event.
In Sunday’s IBSF sanctioned women’s/men’s monobob, Germany’s Laura Nolte topped the field of 12 in one minute 12.88 seconds.
The Swiss tandem of Melanie Hasler (1:13.17) and Michael Vogt (1:13.23) were second and third, respectively.
Lonnie Bissonnette, the two-time Para bobsleigh world champion from St. Catharines, Ont., was seventh in 1:13.60.
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