2015/2016 IBSF World Cup – Two-Man Bobsled – Race 8

From Königssee, GER

Until this season, no Korean had ever won a gold medal in World Cup bobsled or skeleton. Not only did Yunjong Won break that streak, he also took the World Cup overall title with it.

Won came into the final heat of the two-man season just .02 ahead of Beat Hefti. Hefti out-pushed Won by .02, leaving the gold medal entirely up to the drive. Won looked to struggle mid-track, but found speed at the bottom to take the gold medal, and with it the overall World Cup title. Hefti took second by .05.

Francesco Friedrich was the top-scoring German, taking bronze after coming into the final heat fourth, but moved up to third after neither Rico Peter or Nico Walther could keep pace. Peter finished fourth, Oskars Melbardis fifth and Walther sixth.

Won takes the overall World Cup title, ahead of Walther, Ugis Zalims, Peter, Melbardis and Friedrich. The latter two both struggled with injuries throughout the season.

Justin Kripps was the only North American in the top ten, with a tie for seventh with Latvian Ugis Zalims. Teammate Chris Spring struggled, falling from 17th after the first run to 19th in the second.  Meanwhile, Steven Holcomb finished 11th as the top-scoring American. Teammate Nick Cunningham moved up from 16th to finish 14th in the second run.

Bradley Hall finished 13th for Great Britain after two good trips down in the same sled that Bruce Tasker drove in World Championships. Tasker didn’t fair as well, finishing 23rd.

Results:

Pos Names Nation Bib Run 1 Run 2 Total
1 Won / Seo KOR 4 49.59 49.91 1:39.50
2 Hefti / Baumann SUI 11 49.61 49.94 1:39.55
3 Friedrich / Bauer GER 8 49.70 49.95 1:39.65
4 Peter / van der Zijde SUI 2 49.68 50.01 1:39.69
5 Melbardis / Dreiskens LAT 9 49.78 49.93 1:39.71
6 Walther / Poser GER 3 49.70 50.04 1:39.74
7 Kripps / Kopacz CAN 10 49.91 49.87 1:39.78
7 Zalims / Dambis LAT 1 49.84 49.94 1:39.78
9 Lochner / Bluhm GER 12 49.77 50.03 1:39.80
10 Stulnev / Belugin RUS 15 49.77 50.06 1:39.83
11 Holcomb / Valdes USA 5 50.00 50.03 1:40.03
12 Kasjanov / Pushkarev RUS 7 50.03 50.08 1:40.11
13 Hall / Baines GBR 21 50.04 50.20 1:40.24
14 Cunningham / Michener USA 13 50.12 50.30 1:40.42
15 Bertazzo / Fontana ITA 17 50.24 50.23 1:40.47
16 Kibermanis / Miknis LAT 14 50.26 50.23 1:40.49
17 Maier / Moldovan AUT 20 50.07 50.44 1:40.51
18 Kim / Kim KOR 16 50.03 50.50 1:40.53
19 Spring / Giguere CAN 6 50.20 50.35 1:40.55
20 Dvorak / Suchy CZE 22 50.48 50.61 1:41.09
21 de Bruin / van der Geest NED 18 50.50
22 Kolb / Esterhammer AUT 24 50.70
23 Tasker / Simons GBR 19 50.91
24 Radenovic / Vujanic SRB 23 51.88