Germany sweeps podium in Olympic two-man bobsleigh

YANQING, Beijing, Feb. 15 (Xinhua) -- German bobsledders demonstrated their dominance by sweeping top three in the two-man bobsleigh at the Beijing Winter Olympics here on Tuesday.

Francesco Friedrich and Thorsten Margis clocked their winning time of three minutes and 56.89 seconds over four heats to successfully defend their PyeongChang 2018 title, which was shared by Justin Kripps of Canada.

They were followed by Johannes Lochner and Florian Bauer by 0.49 seconds, and Christoph Hafer and Matthias Sommer in third place in 3:58.58.

"We feel good when the competition starts, and we know that we are good in pushing. I have it in my hands and I have to go on the best line I can drive here. I did it really good the first run, then in the second run I made some mistakes and lost some time," the 31-year-old Friedrich said.

"Today in the third run we say we have to fight, we have to attack Hansi (Johannes Lochner), and we can make the distance. It worked, we did it. It was so great to come to the finish in the third run and see the result of 58.99. We want to be the only ones who come under 59 (seconds) and we did it," Friedrich added.

When talking about sharing the podium with two other German pairs, brakeman Sommer said: "It's a very good feeling for us. It's a team victory. It's a victory for Germany."

Host athlete Sun Kaizhi ranked the 14th among 30 pairs for the best result for China after its bobsledders started to compete in the event at PyeongChang 2018.

"We overcame the nervousness and set our best record in run three. Our mindset is getting stronger and stronger in these days," said Wu Qingze, Sun's brakeman.

"We may bring you more surprises in the four-man event on Saturday," Wu said.