2014/2015 FIBT World Cup – Four-Man Bobsled – Race 4

From Königssee, GER

Going into the second run of four-man bobsled, it looked like there was a definite chance of a German sweep, but World Cup point leader Oskars Melbardis was having none of it.

Nico Walther came into the second run as the leader, and despite a pretty clean run, he wasn’t fast enough to beat Max Arndt.  Arndt, coming off a concussion one week ago, had a great second run to move up from third to the gold medal position.  Walther took silver, while Oskars Melbardis edged German Francesco Friedrich for third.  Friedrich settled for fourth, while Melbardis’ Latvian teammate Oskars Kibermanis took fifth.

The American post-Olympic rebuilding program continues. Steven Holcomb led the way in 9th, the only USA sled in the Top 10.  Nick Cunningham had a bumpy second run and dropped to 13th, while Codie Bascue finished 16th.

Justin Kripps wasn’t able to equal his two-man finish of third in the four-man competition.  Kripps did lead the way for Canada in 12th. Teammates Christopher Spring and Kaillie Humphries finished 14th and 18th, respectively. Lamin Deen led the way for Great Britain in 11th, while teammate Olly Biddulph finished 21st.

Results:

Pos Names Nation Bib Run 1 Run 2 Total
1 Arndt/Korona/Rödiger/Heber GER 8 48.80 48.92 1:37.72
2 Walther/Bredau/Hübenbecker/Poser GER 12 48.78 48.96 1:37.74
3 Melbardis/Dreiskens/Vilkaste/Strenga LAT 5 48.92 48.94 1:37.86
4 Friedrich/Bluhm/Grothkopp/Margis GER 9 48.79 49.18 1:37.97
5 Kibermanis/Lusis/Zirups/Leiboms LAT 10 49.02 49.06 1:38.08
6 Kasjanov/Pushkarev/Huzin/Mokrousov RUS 6 48.94 49.21 1:38.15
7 Peter/van der Zijde/Amrhein/Badraun SUI 3 49.12 49.24 1:38.36
8 Maier/Laussegger/Sammer/Somov AUT 16 49.09 49.34 1:38.43
9 Holcomb/Olsen/Reed/Valdes USA 7 49.20 49.36 1:38.56
10 Stulnev/Neustroev/Selikhov/Zaytsev RUS 14 49.43 49.49 1:38.92
11 Deen/Olubi/Smallin/Matthews GBR 2 49.48 49.45 1:38.93
12 Kripps/Nemet/Barnett/Coakwell CAN 4 49.42 49.57 1:38.99
13 Cunningham/Cremin/Harrison/Michener USA 1 49.31 49.69 1:39.00
14 Spring/Plug/Kopacz/Kirkpatrick CAN 11 49.59 49.50 1:39.09
15 Andrianov/Utkin/Antukh/Kondratenko RUS 15 49.63 49.58 1:39.21
16 Bascue/Victorian/Clark/Adams USA 13 49.78 49.59 1:39.37
17 Grigore/Craciun/Salajan/Moldovan ROU 19 49.71 49.81 1:39.52
18 Humphries/McClelland/Dale/Violato CAN 17 49.81 49.93 1:39.74
19 Gschnitzer/Rosa/Caruso/Variola ITA 20 49.87 49.96 1:39.83
20 Won/Seo/Jun/Oh KOR 18 49.76 50.08 1:39.84
21 Biddulph/Oro-Campos/McLaughlin/Simpson GBR 21 50.01
22 Wesselink/Balvers/Mensink/Veenker NED 22 50.83