Malta Independent

World Cup leader Lochner wins 4-man bobsled event

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World Cup leader Johannes Lochner won a four-man bobsled event on Sunday and edged closer to the season-long title.

World champion Lochner drove his crew — Sebastian Mrowka, Joshua Bluhm and Christian Rasp — to a combined two-run time which was 0.14 seconds faster than fellow German Francesco Friedrich.

Going into the final race next weekend at their home track Koenigsee, Lochner leads Friedrich in the standings.

Friedrich and his push team of Candy Bauer, Martin Grothkopp and Thorsten Margis set an Olympia track record of 1 minute, 4.15 seconds for their second run.

Canada's Chris Spring, Bryan Barnett, Lascelles Brown and Neville Wright placed third, 0.53 back.

Monaco got a season-best World Cup result in eighth, with driver Rudy Rinaldi pushed by Boris Vain, Thibault Demarthon and Steven Borges Mendonaca.

Boe, Makarainen win mass start races at biathlon World Cup

Johannes Thingnes Boe ended Martin Fourcade's biathlon World Cup-winning streak and Kaisa Makarainen claimed her first win of the season in mass start races on Sunday.

Fourcade, who won the men's previous four events, was leading going into the third shoot but missed two targets while Boe quickly hit all five. The Norwegian seized the lead as Fourcade completed two penalty loops and he kept it to complete the 15-kilometer course in 37 minutes, 11.2 seconds. Boe only missed one target in the final shoot.

Fourcade recovered to finish just 4.5 seconds behind Boe, while French teammates Antonin Guigonnat and Quentin Fillon Maillet were 8.4 and 12.6 back in third and fourth, respective­ly.

Boe's older brother Tarjei was 14.2 back in fifth, ahead of Germany's Simon Schempp.

Fourcade, the six-time defending champion, leads after 12 of 22 World Cup events on 666 points, ahead of the younger Boe on 622.

Makarainen edged home favorite Laura Dahlmeier by 0.8 seconds to win the women's 12-5kilometer race in 34:05.6, with Czech Veronika Vitkova 4.6 behind in third.

Canada's Rosanna Crawford, who claimed her first podium place on Thursday, was leading going into the final shoot but was unable to hold off her rivals' late surge as she finished 5.2 behind Makarainen in fourth.

Crawford was the only competitor to shoot cleanly. The top three each missed two targets.

Makarainen seized the overall World Cup lead from Anastasiya Kuzmina. The Finn has 489 points while Kuzmina — who missed six targets and finished 23rd in Ruhpolding — has 470 with 10 events remaining.

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