Americans Stumble In World Cup 4-Man Bobsled Race
ST. MORITZ (AP) — Latvia won a four-man World Cup bobsled race Sunday, while the U.S. team capped another rough week after a solid start to the season.
Reigning Olympic champion Steven Holcomb and his team of Steve Langton, Curt Tomasevicz and Chris Fogt were seventh in 2:10.29. Holcomb won all three four-man races in North America, but has posted an average finish of 11.3 in three European events and dropped to fourth in the points standings.
"This hurts the team morale a bit, but we have a couple more races to go," Holcomb said. "We'll keep fighting the good fight."
USA-2 pilot Nick Cunningham fared even worse. Cunningham was third after the first run, then lost control and crashed in the second run. Even though his sled crossed the finish line, Cunningham was disqualified and awarded no points because one of his push athletes, Dallas Robinson, was out of the sled at the time. Robinson fell out of the sled shortly after the crash.
Latvian pilot Oskars Melbardis earned his first victory of the season after not finishing better than fourth in a World Cup race. He and push athletes Daumants Dreiskens, Arvis Vilkaste and Janis Strenga finished two runs in 2 minutes, 9.52 seconds. Russian pilot Alexander Zubkov finished second, 0.23 seconds back. Maximilian Arndt of Germany took third.
They were the only two American sleds in Sunday's field. Cory Butner, bidding for an Olympic spot, crashed during training this week and wasn't eligible to race.
Teams will travel to Igls, Austria, for Olympic nominations next weekend.
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