Nov 24

USA 1 fourth in Whistler four man bobsled race

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Contact: Amanda Bird, USBSF Marketing & Communications Director
(518) 354-2250, abird@usbsf.com

USA-1 fourth in Whistler four-man bobsled race

WHISTLER, British Columbia (Nov. 24, 2012)-USA-1’s silver medal streak ended in Whistler after the crew finished fourth in today’s four-man bobsled World Cup.  Despite finishing just 0.06 seconds from the medals, Steven Holcomb (Park City, Utah), Justin Olsen (San Antonio, Texas), Steve Langton (Melrose, Mass.) and Curt Tomasevicz (Shelby, Neb.) can still see the silver lining.

“I’m disappointed to finish fourth, but at the same time it’s still the top four in the world, which isn’t bad,” Holcomb said.  “There are 25 other sleds that would be really happy to be where I’m at right now.  I’m bummed we didn’t get a medal because this is my track.  But that’s racing; it’s the way it goes. You can’t win them all, but I did win here when it counted at the Olympics two years ago.”

Team USA-1 powered the BMW sled off the block in 4.81 seconds and was a mere 0.03 seconds behind the pace in third position.  Teams moved up and down the leader board in the final heat in one of the season’s most tightly contested races to date, but USA-1 stepped up to the challenge with a 4.78 push time.  The sled broke away from Holcomb a few times down the course, and the slight skids scrubbed enough time to bump the team into fourth position.  USA-1 clocked a total time of 1:43.89 to finish just 0.06 seconds from bronze medal position.

“I made too many mistakes,” Holcomb said. “I need to make sure I stay focused and come back to improve on the second run like we did yesterday.  It’s still a learning experience.”

Russian Alexander Zubkov continues his domination of the four-man bobsled World Cup tour.  Zubkov teamed with Alexey Negodaylo, Dmitry Trunenkov and Maxim Mokrousov for a combined time of 1:43.29 to earn his third consecutive victory. 

RUS-2 pilot Alexander Kasjanov and his crew of Maxim Belugin, Ilvir Khuzin and Nikolay Khrenkov threw down a speedy second run, but fell 0.24 seconds short of their teammates to claim silver. 

Chris Spring came back this season after a horrific crash in Altenberg, Germany last year, and claimed his first career World Cup medal today.  Spring teamed with Timothy Randall, Adam Rosenke and Ben Coakwell to overtake USA-1 for bronze after clocking a two-run total of 1:43.83. 

“Today was a crazy race,” Holcomb said.  “Zubkov doesn’t make mistakes, Kasjanov had two great runs, and it’s really great to see Spring in the medals.  It was almost exactly a year ago that he was in a hospital from the crash, so it’s really awesome to see him medal.”

Nick Cunningham (Monterey, Calif.) teamed with Chris Fogt (Alpine, Utah), Adam Clark (Owenton, Ky.) and Andreas Drbal (Belmont, Calif.) to once again power the WIDIA sled off the starting block with some of the fastest push times of the field.  The crew was within reach of the medals after finishing seventh in the first heat, but a major mistake out of exit nine nearly rolled the sled.  USA-2 stayed upright, but the team fell back into 11th with a total time of 1:44.62.

Cory Butner (Yucaipa, Calif.) and his push crew of Johnny Quinn (McKinney, Texas), Jesse Beckom (Chicago, Ill.) and Nic Taylor (Hayward, Calif.) were en route to a top 10 finish after a first run of 52.81 seconds.  USA-3 powered the Sliding2Sochi sled off the block 0.04 seconds faster in the final heat, but the sled hugged the right wall at the exit of corner nine and flipped into the entrance of 10.  Taylor was ejected from the sled, and the team was disqualified for not crossing the finish line with all four competitors.  The team got out of the sled shaken and visibly disappointed, but safe. 

Please contact Amanda Bird, USBSF Marketing & Communications Director, at abird@usbsf.com or 518-354-2250 with media inquiries.

Results:

1. Zubkov, Negodaylo, Trunenkov and Mokrousov (RUS) 1:43.29 (51.63, 51.66); 2. Kasjanov, Belugin, Khuzin and Khrenkov (RUS) 1:43.53 (51.65, 51.88); 3. Spring, Randall, Rosenke and Coackwell (CAN) 1:43.83 (51.78, 52.05); 4. Holcomb, Olsen, Langton and Tomasevicz (USA) 1:43.89 (51.66, 52.23);…11. Cunningham, Clark, Drbal and Fogt (USA) 1:44.62 (51.90, 52.72);…Butner, Quinn, Beckom and Taylor (USA) (52.81, DSQ);

About the U.S. Bobsled and Skeleton Federation
The United States Bobsled and Skeleton Federation, based in Lake Placid, N.Y., is the national governing body for the sports of bobsled and skeleton in the United States. The USBSF would like to thank its sponsors, suppliers and contributors for their support: BMW of North America, Under Armour, United States National Guard, Kampgrounds of America, Vivat!, Global Forwarding, KBC Helmets, Susan G. Komen for the Cure, Autism Speaks, Park City Lodging, EDAS/Ripxx, UberSense, Tesa Tape and Ferris Mfg. Corp. For more information, please visit the USBSF website at http://bobsled.teamusa.org.

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