Canada unable to finish what it starts
Kripps crew lowers own start record in final four-man run, but slides to sixth place
PYEONGCHANG, SOUTH KOREA— The last time Justin Kripps was piloting a four-man bobsled in the final run at the Olympics, he was sitting last, having flipping his sled on an earlier run.
This time, four years later, and fresh off winning a gold medal in the twoman event, he was sitting fourth and well within striking distance of getting on the podium again.
“I’m super proud of the boys, pumping off some huge starts. We’ve just got to find a bit more speed down the bottom and we’ll move up,” Kripps said, after the first of the two weekend days of racing.
Those boys behind Kripps are a former CFL player, a shot putter and a sprinter — and they’re fast.
They set the push-start record for the Pyeongchang track on Saturday, matched it on their first run on Sunday and then lowered the record on their fourth and final run.
But it wasn’t enough to move them up to the podium. By the time they got to the bottom, after one bad corner, they’d dropped even farther off the pace.
Germany’s Francesco Friedrich, who tied Kripps and Alexander Kopacz for gold in the two-man event at the start of the week, powered his way to another gold medal.
And, unbelievably, the hometown favourites, the South Korean team piloted by Won Yunjong — and coached by Canadian Pierre Lued- ers, who won Olympic gold at Nagano in 1998 and silver at the 2006 Turin Games — tied for the silver medal with a second German sled piloted by Nico Walther.
The Canadian team of Kripps, Jesse Lumsden, Kopacz and Oluseyi Smith were passed on the final run by Swiss and Latvian sleds to tumble from fourth to sixth.
Overall, Canadian athletes have won 29 medals here, the most for Canada at a Winter Games, and the four-man bobsled was the last realistic chance to add to the tally.
It was also the final race on this Olympic track that has yielded mixed results. Kripps and Kopacz tied for gold in the two-man race and Kaillie Humphries and Phylicia George won bronze in the women’s race, but little has been easy or predictable.
Corner nine took out two-time Olympic champion and German luge legend Felix Loch on his final run. A combo of corner nine and the wrong runner choice for the track put Humphries, a two-time Olympic champion, in fifth place after the first run, though she managed to pull herself back to a spot on the podium in the subsequent runs.
And corner two was a struggle for other bobsled, skeleton and luge athletes.
This track has yielded some incredibly close times so the smallest of mistakes is all it takes to tumble down the rankings. The warm and humid weather in the four-man races also created variable track conditions, adding yet another challenge for drivers.
Canada’s next best finish in fourman came from rookie Olympic driver Nick Poloniato, who was 12th with his crew of Cameron Stones, Joshua Kirkpatrick and Ben Coakwell.
Canada’s third sled, with Christopher Spring, who was frustrated by the track conditions on the first day, and his crew of Lascelles Brown, Bryan Barnett and Neville Wright, finished 16th.