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Dec
16
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USA-1 seventh in La Plagne’s four-man bobsled World Cup
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Dec 16, 2012,
6:23 AM ET
Contact: Amanda Bird, USBSF Marketing & Communications Director
(518) 354-2250, abird@usbsf.com
USA-1 seventh in La Plagne’s four-man bobsled World Cup
LA PLAGNE, France (Dec. 16, 2012)- Speed was elusive today for men’s bobsled pilot Steven Holcomb (Park City, Utah) and his USA-1 push crew of Steve Langton (Melrose, Mass.), Justin Olsen (San Antonio, Texas) and Curt Tomasevicz (Shelby, Neb.). The top American team was unable to race to the medals in the final race of the first half of the season after finishing seventh on the 1992 Olympic track.
“It’s very disappointing,” Holcomb said. “We put everything we had on the line and did what we were supposed to do, but the results just didn’t come.”
Team Night Train powered off the start in 5.90 seconds and Holcomb positioned the squad in fifth position with a first run of 59.28 seconds. The reigning four-man world champions were still in medal contention.
USA-1 matched their start time in the final heat, and Holcomb drove the BMW sled seamlessly to the finish. Despite the smooth run, the team was unable to maintain their position and fell back into seventh with a combined time of 1:58.66.
“It’s going to be one of those races that you watch video and analyze the runs and never know why we were slow,” Holcomb said. “I thought I had two solid runs. I’m not really sure why we didn’t make up or even maintain speed.”
Beat Hefti was able to usurp Alexander Zubkov from the leader’s position for the first time this four-man season. Hefti returned to competition just last week, and claimed his first four-man bobsled victory of the season with a combined time of 1:57.92. Russian Zubkov seemed unbeatable in four-man, but he fell back 0.09 seconds to the Swiss to finish second. Zubkov’s younger teammate Alexander Kasjanov nabbed the bronze medal for Russia with a total time of 1:58.18.
Nick Cunningham (Monterey, Calif.), Andreas Drbal (Belmont, Calif.), Adam Clark (Owenton, Ky.) and Chris Fogt (Alpine, Utah) were tied for 14th with CAN-2 after posting a first run time of 59.59 seconds. The crew bettered their start by 0.04 seconds in the final heat to give Cunningham a faster getaway down the course. USA-2 gained two positions after posting a faster second heat to move into 12th with a combined time of 1:59.02.
Cory Butner (Yucaipa, Calif.) and his crew of Jesse Beckom (Chicago, Ill,), Chris Langton (Melrose, Mass.) and Johnny Quinn (McKinney, Texas) clocked a respectable start time of 5.96 seconds. Butner drove a relatively clean run, but the Sliding2Sochi sled was unable to find speed down the course. The crew crossed the finish line in 1:00.16 for 24th position.
Today’s four-man race was the final World Cup competition in 2012. Athletes will return home this afternoon for the holiday break and will reunite for the second half of the season in Altenberg, Germany in early January.
“It’s a good time to have a break,” Holcomb said. “It’ll allow us some time to relax and step away so that we can figure it all out.”
Check your local listings to watch coverage of the events on Universal Sports. You can also watch the final heat of the four-man bobsled race by visiting the official website of the U.S. Bobsled & Skeleton Federation at www.usbsf.com.
Please contact Amanda Bird, USBSF Marketing & Communications Director, at abird@usbsf.com or 518-354-2250 with media inquiries.
Results:
1. Hefti, Baumann, Lamparter and Egger (SUI) 1:57.92 (58.86, 59.06); 2. Zubkov, Negodaylo, Trunenkov and Mokrousov (RUS) 1:58.01 (59.07, 58.94); 3. Kasjanov, Khuzin, Belugin and Moiseev (RUS) 1:58.18 (59.14, 59.04);…7. Holcomb, Olsen, Langton and Tomasevicz (USA) 1:58.66 (59.28, 59.38);…12. Cunningham, Clark, Drbal and Fogt (USA) 1:59.02 (59.59, 59.43);…24. Butner, Beckom, Langton and Quinn (USA) (1:00.16, DNS);
About the U.S. Bobsled and Skeleton Federation
The United States Bobsled and Skeleton Federation, based in Lake Placid, N.Y., is the national governing body for the sports of bobsled and skeleton in the United States. The USBSF would like to thank its sponsors, suppliers and contributors for their support: BMW of North America, Under Armour, United States National Guard, Kampgrounds of America, Vivat!, Global Forwarding, KBC Helmets, Susan G. Komen for the Cure, Autism Speaks, Park City Lodging, EDAS/Ripxx, UberSense, Tesa Tape and Ferris Mfg. Corp. For more information, please visit the USBSF website at http://bobsled.teamusa.org.
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