From La Plagne, FRA
As it was for most of the weekend, track conditions were an issue at the French track for four-man bobsled. Unlike the two-man race, the four-man race wasn’t remotely close coming into the second heat. Oskars Melbardis held the lead by a solid .32 over Alexander Kasjanov.going into Run 2.
In the second run, two-man European Champion Francesco Friedrich put down the fastest time to move from fifth to third, but it wasn’t enough to get ahead of either the Russian or Latvian. Kasjanov with a quick second run got him within shouting distance, but Melbardis was too much, taking another gold and winning the European Championship in the process.
Nico Walther and Max Arndt took fourth and fifth for Germany, while Rico Peter fell from third to sixth for Switzerland.
Steven Holcomb scored an eighth place finish for the United States. Teammates Codie Bascue and Nick Cunningham took 15th and 19th, respectively.
Chris Spring led the way for Canada with a 12th place finish. Justin Kripps took 13th and Kaillie Humphries 20th respectively for the Canadians. Olly Biddulph took 17th for Great Britain.
Results:
Pos | Names | Nation | Bib | Run 1 | Run 2 | Total |
1 | Melbardis/Dreiskens/Vilkaste/Strenga | LAT | 1 | 57.66 | 58.95 | 1:56.61 |
2 | Kasjanov/Huzin/Pushkarev/Zaytsev | RUS | 2 | 57.98 | 58.91 | 1:56.89 |
3 | Friedrich/Bauer/Grothkopp/Margis | GER | 7 | 58.33 | 58.80 | 1:57.13 |
4 | Walther/Hübenbecker/Bredau/Poser | GER | 9 | 58.41 | 59.14 | 1:57.55 |
5 | Arndt/Speer/Korona/Putze | GER | 4 | 58.32 | 59.26 | 1:57.58 |
6 | Peter/van der Zijde/Amrhein/Friedli | SUI | 3 | 58.24 | 59.41 | 1:57.65 |
7 | Kibermanis/Lusis/Zirups/Leiboms | LAT | 8 | 58.70 | 59.15 | 1:57.85 |
8 | Holcomb/Olsen/Valdes/Michener | USA | 5 | 58.59 | 59.28 | 1:57.87 |
9 | Maier/Laussegger/Sammer/Smetana | AUT | 13 | 58.86 | 59.26 | 1:58.12 |
10 | Vrba/Suchy/Stoklaska/Havlin | CZE | 15 | 58.99 | 59.17 | 1:58.16 |
11 | Zakharov/Mokrousov/Selikhov/Kondratenko | RUS | 6 | 58.95 | 59.47 | 1:58.42 |
12 | Spring/Kopacz/Kirkpatrick/Plug | CAN | 12 | 59.09 | 59.36 | 1:58.45 |
13 | Kripps/Randall/Coakwell/Barnett | CAN | 10 | 59.00 | 59.51 | 1:58.51 |
14 | Costerg/Heinrich/Ricard/Boutherin | FRA | 17 | 59.17 | 59.47 | 1:58.64 |
15 | Bascue/Victorian/Harrison/Cremin | USA | 14 | 59.11 | 59.69 | 1:58.80 |
16 | Andrianov/Neustroev/Soldatenkov/Koshelev | RUS | 16 | 59.37 | 59.44 | 1:58.81 |
17 | Biddulph/Simons/Tasker/Matthews | GBR | 21 | 59.35 | 59.47 | 1:58.82 |
18 | Won/Jun/Seo/Oh | KOR | 19 | 59.52 | 59.49 | 1:59.01 |
19 | Cunningham/Clark/Reed/Adams | USA | 11 | 59.49 | 59.61 | 1:59.10 |
20 | Humphries/McClelland/Nemet/Dale | CAN | 18 | 59.50 | 59.81 | 1:59.31 |
21 | Grigore/Craciun/Salajan/Moldovan | ROU | 20 | 59.70 | ||
22 | Luty/Tylkowski/Miedzik/Kossakowski | POL | 22 | 59.76 | ||
23 | Wesselink/Veenker/Mensink/Brink | NED | 23 | 60.55 |