2014 Olympics – Four-Man Bobsled

February 23, 2014 ken Bobsled News, News 0

From Sochi, Russia

Coming into the second day of four-man bobsled, there was tight racing throughout the field.  The third run did little to decide anything, leaving it up to the final bobsled run of the 2013/2014 FIBT season to work things out.

On home ice, Russian Alexsandr Zubkov was able to pull away slightly from Latvian Oskars Melbardis on the third run.  Both sliders put space between themselves and Steven Holcomb of the United States, who had passed Max Arndt of Germany on this third run.

All Zubkov had to do was make a clean fourth run to take gold, and down home-ice that he knew better than anyone, that wasn’t a problem.  Oskars Melbardis, who won the 2013 test event, did his part in putting down a really fast fourth run, but it wasn’t enough.  Holcomb had to fight off a hard-charging Alexander Kasjanov to take bronze, but managed to score another medal for the United States.  Kasjanov took fourth, just .03 behind Holcomb, and John Jackson of Great Britain rallied to finish fifth.

Nick Cunningham put his American sled in 12th, with one bad run on Day 1 costing him.  The United States managed to medal in every FIBT discipline in the 2014 Olympics, scoring silver in women’s skeleton, bronze in men’s skeleton, bronze in two-man bobsled, silver and bronze in women’s bobsled,and bronze in four-man bobsled.

Lyndon Rush led the way for Canada in ninth.  Chris Spring took 13th despite a really solid final run, while Justin Kripps took 30th after a second run crash.

Germany finished off a disappointing bobsled and skeleton season with an equally disappointing Olympics.  Scoring just one top five (women’s bobsled) coming into four-man bobsled, the four-man program was the one hope for the Germans.  It wasn’t meant to be, and despite putting all four-man sleds in the top 10, no one could crack a medal.  The top finishing German, Max Arndt, left Sochi in sixth place, making for the first time since 1964 that Germany failed to medal in any bobsled event.

Lamin Deen finished 19th in the second British sled, while Heath Spence finished 22nd for Australia.

Results:

Pos Pilot Nation Draw Run 1 Run 2 Run 3 Run 4 Total
1 Alexsandr Zubkov RUS-1 3 54.82 55.37 55.02 55.39 3:40.60
2 Oskars Melbardis LAT-1 7 55.10 55.13 55.15 55.31 3:40.69
3 Steven Holcomb USA-1 2 54.89 55.47 55.30 55.33 3:40.99
4 Alexander Kasjanov RUS-2 6 55.11 55.41 55.29 55.21 3:41.02
5 John James Jackson GBR-1 12 55.26 55.27 55.31 55.26 3:41.10
6 Maximilian Arndt GER-1 1 54.88 55.47 55.47 55.60 3:41.42
7 Thomas Florschütz GER-3 4 55.06 55.42 55.50 55.53 3:41.51
8 Beat Hefti SUI-1 11 55.21 55.34 55.60 55.60 3:41.75
9 Lyndon Rush CAN-2 9 55.35 55.43 55.60 55.38 3:41.76
10 Francesco Friedrich GER-2 8 55.15 55.43 55.81 55.41 3:41.80
11 Edwin Van Calker NED-1 14 55.55 55.57 55.82 55.75 3:42.69
12 Nick Cunningham USA-2 13 55.61 55.48 55.97 55.64 3:42.70
13 Christopher Spring CAN-1 5 55.50 55.70 55.88 55.76 3:42.84
14 Oskars Kibermanis LAT-2 16 55.68 55.52 55.97 55.81 3:42.98
15 Nikita Zakharov RUS-3 15 55.74 55.53 55.88 55.91 3:43.06
16 Jan Vrba CZE-1 19 55.95 55.47 55.95 55.80 3:43.17
17 Loic Costerg FRA-1 22 55.82 55.68 55.91 55.77 3:43.18
18 Simone Bertazzo ITA-1 17 55.78 55.73 56.06 55.88 3:43.45
19 Lamin Deen GBR-2 18 55.91 55.60 56.06 55.95 3:43.52
20 Yonjong Won KOR-1 21 56.12 55.97 56.25 55.88 3:44.22
21 Benjamin Maier AUT-1 24 56.25 56.11 56.27 2:48.63
22 Heath Spence AUS-1 23 56.20 56.21 56.23 2:48.64
23 Thibault Alexis Godefroy FRA-2 30 56.37 56.27 56.35 2:48.99
24 Andreas Neagu ROU-1 25 56.25 56.16 56.62 2:49.03
25 Milan Jagnesak SVK-1 28 56.56 56.37 56.51 2:49.44
26 Hiroshi Suzuki JPN-1 20 56.41 56.42 56.63 2:49.46
27 Dawid Kupczyk POL-1 26 56.57 56.45 56.47 2:49.49
28 Donghyun Kim KOR-2 29 56.98 56.77 56.89 2:50.64
29 Edson Bindilatti BRA-1 27 56.86 56.74 57.11 2:50.71
30 Justin Kripps CAN-3 10 55.17 59.91 55.72 2:50.80