2016/2017 IBSF World Cup – Four-Man Bobsled – Race 5

From St. Moritz, SUI

The racing couldn’t have been much closer. After the first run, Oskars Kibermanis led countryman Oskars Melbardis and Swiss pilot Rico Peter by .01, while the difference from fourth to tenth was just .1. It made for a great second heat.

The second run, for a while, was just as close. That is, until the Latvians put down two fantastic runs, to take gold and silver. Oskars Kibermanis set both the start record and the track record on his second run to pull away from teammate Oskars Melbardis by .13 to win his first ever World Cup gold medal. Melbardis finished second, .17 ahead of bronze.

Francesco Friedrich moved up from fifth to third to take bronze for Germany, just .01 ahead of teammate Johannes Lochner, who finished fourth.

Rico Peter of Switzerland couldn’t back up his first run’s time, and fell back to fifth place, just ahead of Canada’s Chris Spring, who finished a season-best sixth.

The 32 sled field was the largest in quite some time for four-man bobsled. The sheer number of sleds, combined with the way that St. Moritz races, meant tight races not just at the top of the timing sheet, but all the way through the field. The margin between the first place sled and the final sled to make it into the second run was less than .6.

The United States had an uncharacteristically rough day at St. Moritz. Steven Holcomb led the way with a 15th place finish after a disappointing second run. Teammate Justin Olsen dropped back from 12th in the first run to 19th, while Codie Bascue had a rough trip down in the first heat, finishing 30th.

On the other hand, Canada’s four-man race was substantially better than their two-man event. In addition to Spring’s sixth place finish, Justin Kripps moved up from 20th after the first run to 16th, while Nick Poloniato finished 17th.

For Great Britain, Lamin Deen led the way with a 14th place finish, being edged out of 13th by Monaco’s Rudy Rinaldi by .01. Teammate Olly Biddulph struggled on the bottom half of his first run and finished 29th.

There was a bit of controversy in the four-man event. Swiss pilot Beat Hefti was the 32nd and final sled down, and at the end of his run it seemed like he had somewhere around a tenth place run. However, timing and scoring failed to pick up his sled crossing the finish line, leaving Hefti without a time.

The decision was made to have Hefti take a second trip down to get a time for his first run. That time was decidedly slower, and he failed to make the second heat by a mere .08 behind Justin Kripps.

Results: