Germany sweep all five golds at IBSF World Cup in Yanqing

Germany won all five titles on offer at the International Bobsleigh and Skeleton Federation (IBSF) World Cup in Yanqing, Beijing, after German pilot Johannes Lochner led his crew to win the second 4-man bobsleigh gold medal at the National Sliding Center on Sunday. Chinese athletes rounded off their campaign with a total a 2 silvers and 2 bronzes. 

Earlier on Saturday, Lochner and Francesco Friedrich each led a 4-man team in the first bobsleigh final to give Germany a 1-2 lead in the first final. Ranked in the third place were Sun Kaizhi, Zhen Heng, Ding Song and Ye Jielong, who won the first medal for China in this event.

The two German teams finished 13th and 3rd on Sunday. The Italian squad piloted by Patrick Baumgartner rallied in the second run to secure a silver medal, just 0.01 seconds ahead of the bronze medalist team Friedrich, while Team Lochner won gold in 1:56.61. China’s Sun and his teammates ranked sixth, while another Chinese team, consisting of Li Chunjian, Wei Peng, Zhu Zilong and Chi Xiangyu, finished eighth.

In other events, last season’s World Cup overall champion Tina Hermann of Germany claimed a victory in the women’s skeleton, and her compatriot Christopher Grotheer, gold medalist of the Beijing Winter Olympics, won the men’s skeleton. The German pair Lochner and Georg Fleischhauer seized the gold in the 2-man bobsleigh.

On Friday, Zhao Dan won a historic silver for China in the women’s skeleton, while China’s Chen Wenhao and Yan Wengang took the silver and bronze in the men’s skeleton respectively. 

(With input from Xinhua)

(Cover: Profile of the National Sliding Center in Yanqing, Beijing, China. /CFP)