The FIBT World Championships 2008 ran February 11–24, 2008 in Altenberg, Germany for the fifth time, having done so in 1991 (bobsleigh), 1994 (skeleton), 1999 (skeleton), and 2000 (men's bobsleigh). It is the first time Altenberg has hosted all of those events at one championship, and also includes the mixed team event (one run each of men's skeleton, women's skeleton, 2-man bobsleigh, and 2-women bobsleigh) that debuted at the 2007 championships. Training for the events took place February 12–14 for two-man and two-woman bobsleigh, and February 19–20 for skeleton and four-man bobsleigh.
Non-competitive events Practice for men's and women's bobsleigh was cancelled on February 12 to fog and moist air, which affected track visibility. Additional training took place on the 13th.
Bobsleigh
Two man February 16–17, 2008. 30 sleds were scheduled to compete. 26 sleds finished with one team disqualified after the first run, one team not finishing the second run, and two teams not starting after the third run.Two-man bobsleigh World Championships results. - accessed February 17, 2008. Lange and Kuske won their third two-man world championship and fifth overall.
Pos Team Time Gold (André Lange, Kevin Kuske) 3:40.58 Silver (Thomas Florschuetz, Mirko Paetzold) +1.06 Bronze (Alexandre Zoubkov, Alexey Voevoda) +1.39
Four man February 23–24, 2008. 24 sleds competed with 20 finishing. Lange swept both events with the fastest times in each heat.Four-man bobsleigh world championships results. - accessed February 24, 2008. It was his second sweep at the FIBT World Championships, having done so in 2003 and his third overall, counting the 2006 Winter Olympics.
Pos Team Time Gold (André Lange, René Hoppe, Kevin Kuske, Martin Putze) 3:36.26 Silver (Alexander Zubkov, Roman Oreshnikov, Dmitry Trunenkov, Dmitriy Stepushkin) +2.02 Bronze (Matthias Höpfner, Ronny Listner, Thomas Pöge, Alex Mann) +2.59
Two woman February 15–16, 2008. 25 sleds were scheduled to compete. 23 sleds actually did with one withdrawing after the first run, one withdrawing after the second run, and two crashing out during the fourth run.Two-woman bobsleigh final results - accessed February 16, 2008. This event marks the first ever sweep in the bobsleigh part of the championships' history and only the second time ever in any event in the championships' history with Austria being the first to do so in skeleton at Igls in 1991. Counting the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, this is Kiriasis's fourth straight World or Olympic championships in this event. Several crashes occurred the two-day event.
Pos Team Time Gold (Sandra Kiriasis, Romy Logsch) 3:49.50 Silver (Cathleen Martini, Janine Tischer) +0.26 Bronze (Claudia Schramm, Nicole Herschmann) +1.12
Skeleton
Men February 21–22, 2008. Bromley is the first British athlete to win a world championship since 1965. Changing ice conditions complicated the sliding, causing five top sliders to leave their starting grooves.
Pos Athlete Time Gold 3:54.71 Silver +0.68 Bronze +0.74
Women February 22–23, 2008. Huber won her second gold of the while Uhlaender won her second medal of the championships.Women's skeleton world championship results - accessed February 23, 2008. It was Germany's fourth gold at the championships.
Pos Athlete Time Gold 4:02.78 Silver +0.30 Bronze +1.12
Mixed team February 18, 2008. Six teams took part in the event. Germany won their second gold medal in these championships. - accessed February 22, 2008.
Pos Team Time Gold (Sebastian Haupt, Sandra Kiriasis, Berit Wiacker, Anja Huber, Matthias Höpfner, Alex Mann) 3:57.20 Silver (Jon Montgomery, Kaillie Humphries, Jenni Hucul, Michelle Kelly, Lyndon Rush, Nathan Cross) +1.78 Bronze (Zach Lund, Erin Pac, Emily Azevedo, Katie Uhlaender, Steven Holcomb, Curtis Tomasevicz) +1.87
Medal table
References