2016/2017 IBSF World Cup – Four-Man Bobsled – Race 7

From Igls, AUT

There’s been no one better in Igls over the past few years than Oskars Melbardis, with the big Latvian winning in Austria over the last couple of years. But it’s been a long few months for Melbardis, as he’s been working his way back from back surgery. He’d seen results in European Cup, and had been getting better in World Cup.

The starts for Melbardis are apparently back, and on a track where start times are even more critical than normal, he found World Cup gold for the first time of the 2016/2017 season.

Both of the Latvian’s runs were relatively clean, and despite Rico Peter setting the fastest run in the second heat, Melbardis was .05 faster than anyone else over the two heats.

Switzerland’s Rico Peter finished with a silver medal, only .01 ahead of Steven Holcomb. Holcomb, who missed a podium finish by .01 in Königssee a week ago, had a faster second run than Melbardis, but needed just a little bit more to take a silver medal.

Francesco Friedrich finished fourth, moving up from eighth in the first run, ahead of Alexey Stulnev and Nico Walther, who rounded out the top six.

Canada was once again led by Justin Kripps, who finished just outside of the top six in seventh place. Teammate Chris Spring finished 16th, while Nick Poloniato finished 22nd.

Justin Olsen of the United States missed the second run by just .01 and finished 21st, just ahead of Poloniato. Olsen’s teammate, Codie Bascue, finished four spots behind him in 25th.

Bradley Hall was the top-finishing British slider in 18th, two spots ahead of teammate Lamin Deen.

There were three all-women teams in the race, with Romania fielding a sled comprised of its two women’s bobsled teams, and Canada fielding two sleds. Kaillie Humphries was the fastest of the three, with Alysia Rissling and Maria Constantin finishing behind her.

Johannes Lochner of Germany was disqualified for having runners that were too warm. Lochner had won three of the past four four-man races.

Results: