Participation in the world cup start in lake placid is secured for christian rasp. At the selection races on his home track at konigssee, pilot johannes lochner, to whose bob team the pusher from mainbernheim belongs, didn’t miss a beat and won all the races in both the two-man and four-man event.
Good start times especially in the foursome
Lochner distanced himself from the bobs of his younger competitors christoph hafer and richard oelsner, whom he had to leave behind one week earlier at the german championship in altenberg. "That was our plan, too," rasp said of the convincing performance despite the pressure situation. The 30-year-old from unterfranken pushed in the two and the four, the bobteam lochner uberzeugte especially in the four (with florian bauer, christopher weber and rasp) with the best start times.
However, national coach rene spies is conflicted and has therefore not yet finally nominated the team for the new world cup season. In the men’s race, the first two weekends of december in lake placid, the seeded olympic champion francesco friedrich, oats and lochner will be competing. Shortly before the end of the year, spies scheduled a new selection at the training course on the world cup track in altenberg, where the teams of hafer, lochner, oelsner and the currently injured nico walther competed for the two starting places for the rest of the world cup season and for the world cup among themselves.
"In this year’s nomination, we were faced with two challenges," said spies, explaining the unusual approach. "The first one resulted from the fall of nico walther, a very deserving athlete of the last years, who always won a medal, and who now unfortunately has to take a break for six weeks and will only be fit again in december. The second circumstance is actually a pleasant one, namely that many young teams in the women’s and men’s competitions have now made it to the top. They have clearly improved at the start and in the driving style and have made life very difficult for the established ones."
Spies: "another sharp race"
For the lochner team there is no bonus after the exchanges at the olympic games and at the last world championship, despite the third place in the four-man bobsleigh world cup in 18/19. "Richard oelsner had just as much of a winning performance on the world championship track in altenberg as christoph hafer. Johannes lochner on the other hand was absolutely dominant at konigssee. That’s why it was an obvious decision for us to have another sharp race in altenberg at the end of december," said the national coach. Lochner must then show that he can also travel fast in the erzgebirge region.
With the women there is also a hard case. Olympic champion mariama jamanka and stephanie schneider are firmly nominated for the world cup with their teams. Kim kalicki also starts in lake placid, but has to race against schneider in altenberg afterwards. The german champion laure nolte is not on the difficult track in the USA, but she is set for the new year and also for the world championships.