Francesco Friedrich is on his way to his sixth premier class title in his tenth four-man bobsleigh world championship. A week after his victory in bobsleigh two, the 33-year-old from BSC Sachsen Oberbärenburg is 0.27 seconds ahead of Johannes Lochner from Berchtesgaden at halftime of the World Cup. Adam Ammour of BRC Thuringia moved up to third place and is five hundredths of a second ahead of Latvia's Emils Cipulis.

Francesco Friedrich wants his sixth gold in the four-man bobsleigh World Championship

As in the two-man race, Friedrich also set a record in the first run of the four-man bobsleigh race and erased the record set nine years ago by his former clubmate Nico Walther (53.48 seconds) in 53, 12 seconds. Although Lochner was able to follow Friedrich out two weeks after his serious fall in training, he lost some time on the track with his recently damaged sled.

Although FES technicians were able to reassemble the device after many overtime hours in the shop, Bob did not fully use it. “We still have an option with a runner, but I think we are not that slow on the track,” said the Olympic silver medalist, emphasizing: “I have had silver so many times that we want gold.”

Two-time Olympic champion Friedrich took the challenge in stride and wants to snatch the dream of the title from his pursuer Lochner in the third race on Sunday. “Tomorrow we will give them an electric shock in the first race and then it will all be over. We would love to be the first to finish the third race,” said the Saxon.