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Bobsleigh team misses Olympic medal finish

Canadian team finishes four-man event 0.84 seconds behind first place, 0.31 seconds from podium
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It was a strong effort, but Justin Kripps and his teammates lost out on an Olympic medal by less than one-third of a second at the 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea on the weekend.

The bobsleigh competition consisted of four official heats at the Olympic Sliding Centre, with 20 teams competing.

Kripps, from Summerland, was the pilot of the Canada-3 bobsleigh. He was joined by teammates Jesse Lumsden, Alexander Kopacz and Oluseyi Smith.

In the first heat, Kripps and his teammates finished fifth behind Francesco Friedrich of Germany, Won Yunjong of South Korea, Nico Walther of Germany and Oskars Melbardis of Latvia.

The Canadian team, with a time of 48.85 seconds, was 0.31 seconds behind Friedrich’s German team.

In the second heat Kripps and his teammates finished in ninth place with a time of 49.28 seconds. This was 0.27 seconds behind the German team, piloted by Friedrich.

Another German team, this one piloted by Nico Walther, finished second, tied with Rico Peter’s team from Switzerland.

The South Korean team, piloted by Won, finished in fourth place.

In the third heat, Kripps and his teammates finished sixth, with a time of 48.95 seconds, 0.19 seconds behind Friedrich’s German team.

The Swiss team, piloted by Peter, finished in second place while the Korean team, piloted by Won, finished third.

In the final heat, Kripps and his team finished in eighth place, 0.10 seconds behind Peter’s Swiss team.

Melbardis of Latvia finished second and Friedrich of Germany finished third. Fourth place was a three-way tie between Benjamin Maier of Austria, Russian athlete Maxim Andrianov and Justin Olsen of the United States.

The medal standings are based on the cumulative results in the sport.

Friedrich’s German team took gold, with a total time of 3:15.85.

The silver medal was a tie between Walther’s German team and Won’s South Korean team.

Earlier in the games, Kripps and Kopacz won gold for Canada in the two-man bobsleigh competition, tied with Friedrich and Thorsten Margis of Germany.

Melbardis and Janis Strenga of Austria took bronze, just 0.05 seconds from gold.

Kripps has had a strong bobsleigh season this year. Earlier, he won the overall World Cup title in the two-man event. Out of eight World Cup races, he had podium finishes in five and did not place lower than fourth place in any of them.



John Arendt

About the Author: John Arendt

John Arendt has worked as a journalist for more than 30 years. He has a Bachelor of Applied Arts in Journalism degree from Ryerson Polytechnical Institute.
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