2016 IBSF World Championships – Four-Man Bobsled

From Igls, AUT

The season has been a tough one for the leader of the Latvian team, Oskars Melbardis. The reigning World Cup champion started 19th in the first heat, and slowly worked his way up throughout the World Championships, leaving himself second going into the final run.

Melbardis threw down the fastest run of the race, and was the only pilot under 51 seconds, putting the pressure on Francesco Friedrich. Friedrich had led throughout the entire competition, but he and his team seemed to take it easy on the third run’s start, which allowed Melbardis and the rest of the field to inch closer to him. Friedrich’s fourth run was the sloppiest of the contest, and fifth fastest of the heat, dropping him behind the Latvian to to take silver, leaving Melbardis with the first ever gold medal for Latvia in the IBSF World Championships.

Swiss pilot Rico Peter was consistently in and around the medals all weekend long, and was rewarded for a very clean final run with a bronze medal, holding of Nico Walther. The German held off a hard charge by Austrian Benjamin Maier, who had the second fastest run of the heat on home ice to move up to fifth place by the end of the competition. Johannes Lochner put three German sleds in the top six with his sixth place finish.

Christopher Spring was the top-finishing North American with a 12th place finish. Teammate Justin Kripps had a really rough first day, but rallied to finish 16th.

It was a rough end of the IBSF World Championships for the United States. Nick Cunningham led the way with a 15th place finish. Former Olympic and World Champion Steven Holcomb struggled in the first and third heats, finishing outside of the top 20 in 21st place.

John Jackson led the way for Great Britain in 11th. Teammate Lamin Deen came into the second day just outside of a medal position. Through Turn 9, Deen had made up ground and looked to possibly contend for a gold. Deen flipped out of 9, though, and wound up finishing 22nd.

Results: