Kripps starts 2019 with silver
Summerland product places 2nd in Germany
ALTENBERG, Germany — Summerland’s Justin Kripps started off 2019 with a podium finish, placing second to capture silver at a World Cup event on Saturday.
It was a birthday weekend for both Kripps, who turned 32 on Sunday, and his partner Cam Stones of Whitby, Ont., who turned 27 on Saturday while celebrating that success in the men’s two-man race.
Kripps slid to the ninth World Cup two-man podium of his career, clocking a two-run time of 1:52.19 on the 17-corner track.
He also captured Olympic gold in 2018 and has a World Championship silver in the two-man discipline.
“We haven’t done any World Cups yet this year, so it is hard to know where you stack up against the big boys. It was awesome to come out and get a medal in the first race,” said Kripps, who dominated the Europe Cup development circuit prior to the holiday break. “It’s nice to confirm that we can compete with the big boys.”
Kripps won the Altenberg two-man race last year. Sitting atop the leaderboard after the first run, it appeared he was on track to successfully defend that title, but a skid in his first corner on the second run was too much time to make up, dropping him into second place on one of the toughest tracks in the world.
“I like this track. It was great to get that win on my birthday last year, and to win the silver with Cam on his birthday today is pretty awesome,” said Kripps.
The timing was perfect for Stones — a member of Canada’s 2018 Olympic Team who has predominantly raced four-man since joining the Canadian program in 2016 — to win his first career two-man medal.
“Our girls made a birthday sign for me and the German crowd all started singing happy birthday, so it was pretty cool,” said Stones.
Newly united and racing the World Cup together for the first time, the friends off the track showed instant chemistry, posting the fifth and third-fastest start times.
“There are definitely expectations when you are in Justin’s sled, and I obviously wanted to live up to those. There were also big expectations racing on a track where he won last year, so I was aware of that,” said Stones. “The goal was to be within striking distance of the big dogs (Germans) at the start. Those guys are monsters, so it was good to see how we stacked up against them.”
The Canadian sled was knocked off the golden step of the podium by a nearly flawless second run put down by Germany’s Francesco Friedrich and Thorsten Margis. Friedrich, who tied Kripps for the Olympic gold in 2018, drove to a two-run time of 1:52.19 on his home track.
Latvia’s Oskars Kibermanis and Matiss Miknis slid to the bronze at 1:52.67.
In the women’s race, Olympic champion Mariama Jamanka of Germany drove to her second World Cup win of the season, rallying in the second heat to take the victory.
Jamanka and Annika Drazek finished their two runs in one minute, 57.25 seconds. Canadians Christine de Bruin and Kristen Bujnowski were second, 0.31 seconds back, while Americans Elana Meyers Taylor and Lake Kwaza were another 0.08 seconds off the pace in third.
In the men’s four-man race on Sunday, Friedrich posted his fifth win in six races this season and Germany has now won all nine World Cup bobsled events through the first three tour stops.
Oskars Kibermanis was second for Latvia, and Nico Walther took third for Germany.
Canada’s Kripps, Stones, Ryan Sommer and Benjamin Coakwell finished 12th in one minute 50.18 seconds — 1.71 seconds behind Friedrich’s sled.
The other Canadian sled featuring Keefer Joyce of Kelowna and Okanagan Sun football alum Dexter Janke with Nicholas Poloniato and William Auclair was 17th in 1:50.91.