Canada wins bronze in World Cup monobob, four-man races at Winterberg
WINTERBERG, Germany — Canada won bronze in the monobob and four-man races on Saturday at the Winterberg World Cup bobsled competition.
Toronto’s Cynthia Appiah finished third with a two-run time of one minute 58.24 seconds in monobob, while Justin Kripps of Summerland, B.C., piloted his crew to a third-place finish in 1:48.09.
“It feels great to get on the podium, especially given I crashed two out of three runs in training this week,” Appiah said.
“I kept everything the same today — put my trust in the coaches and mechanics — and knew all I had to focus on was putting down two solid runs and everything would be OK.”
American Elana Meyers Taylor won gold in 1:57.83 and Australia’s Breeana Walker took silver in 1:58.06.
Melissa Lotholz of Barrhead, Alta., finished sixth and Christine de Bruin of Stony Plain, Alta., was ninth.
Meanwhile, Kripps and his team of Saskatoon’s Ben Coakwell, Ryan Sommer of White Rock, B.C., and Cam Stones of Whitby, Ont., reached the podium after finishing second in the opening run and fifth in the final heat.
“We are really happy with the result today after a tough week of training,” Kripps said. “I was struggling with how the track was shaped all week and crashed my first run down (in training) and had a few close calls.
“So I’m really proud the boys stayed positive and encouraged me.”
Francsco Friedrich won gold in 1:47.95 and fellow German Johannes Lochner took silver in 1:48.00. Vancouver’s Chris Spring piloted the other Canadian sled to a 13th-place finish.
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