2012 FIBT World Championships – Four-Man Bobsled – Heat 2

From Lake Placid, USA

When the four-man bobsleds take to the track Sunday morning, Steven Holcomb and USA-1 will be ranked first, by a whole .01.  Holcomb and company had another huge push and his clean, fast run put him ahead of Max Arndt and GER-1.  The German sled actually had an equal star time to the Night Train team, but a bumpy second half of their run puts Germany in silver position going into heat 3.  Manuel Machata breaks his tie with Alexsandr Zubkov, moving the GER-2 sled into bronze position.  Edwin Van Calker sits fifth.

Canadian Lyndon Rush had a huge second run, with a third-best run (behind Holcomb and Arndt), he moves from 11th to 7th.  USA’s Nick Cunningham moves to 14th from 15th after various incidents ahead of him.

A tough start to John Napier’s USA-2 sled leaves the USA without a third sled in the race.  A mishap on the load left Chris Vogt on the ice behind the sled, and without a fourth member in the sled at the finish, USA-2 was disqualified.  The DQ, combined with a CAN-2 DQ and a French surrender leaves only 20 sleds in the race, meaning that all should make it to the final run.  Oskars Melbardis wrecked late in his run, but crossed the line with all in their sled.  The Latvian team falls to 17th.