German star Friedrich wins another 4-man world bobsled title

ST. MORITZ, Switzerland — 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.

Friedrich — also the two-time defending Olympic champion in the four-man event — and his team of Thorsten Margis, Candy Bauer and Alexander Schüller finished four runs over two days in 4 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.

The U.S. four-man sled driven by Geoff Gadbois finished 18th.

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.

The U.S. 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.