On the 2010 Olympic track, the duo finished in 1:42.22 minutes after two best times, eleven hundredths of a second ahead of Brits Brad Hall/Taylor Lawrence. Third place, and thus his first podium at the track, went to Königssee’s Johannes Lochner with brakeman Erich Bruckert in spite of considerable back problems. Lochner was 42 hundredths of a second behind the winning pair. The third German sled with Christoph Haefer/Mathias Sommer took fifth place in a field of only ten bobsleds.

Despite a good starting position, the German women in monobobs just missed the podium after the first round. Laura Nolte of Winterberg, who was leading at halftime, fell heavily in the final, but apparently did not suffer any injuries and was still seventh in a field of nine bobsleds. The best German was Kim Kaliki from Wiesbaden in fifth place.

Friedrich: “but still something is possible everywhere”

Lisa Buckwitz from BSR Thüringen also fell in the final round and came in ninth place. The podium places went to North America: Bianca Ribie won ahead of her Canadian compatriot Cynthia Appiah Cynthia and Olympic champion Kelly Humphreys from the USA.

“It was clear it would be difficult, but the performances were fine,” said national coach René Spies, the first time all three athletes were on the track. He also praised the performance of the men, but also found mistakes. “A very close race. Brad Hall made life difficult for us and really challenged us. Franz ran very low in the second run, so it became exciting again.”

Frederick the Conqueror was satisfied anyway. “But everywhere there is still something possible, we have reserves at the start, we have reserves on the track. After a long journey and a difficult start, we are of course very happy with the result.” (dpa)