2014/2015 FIBT World Cup – Four-Man Bobsled – Race 8

From Sochi, Russia

The stand-out World Cup season for Oskars Melbardis came to a head in Sochi, where the two-man World Cup champ also added four-man and combined championships to his resume.  The Latvian came into the second run a .08 behind home-track slider Alexander Kasjanov. Kasjanov’s second run was a tenth of a second slower than Melbardis, though, giving Melbardis another gold medal. German four-man specialist Max Arndt took third after a crash for Rico Peter dropped him from 3rd to 15th.

Justin Kripps continued his mastery of the Sochi track in fourth, while Nikita Zakharov took fifth on home ice.

Nick Cunningham led the way for the Americans with a seventh place run. Steven Holcomb finished ninth and Elana Meyers Taylor 13th to round out the American effort. Chris Spring made it two sleds in the top 10 for Canada in tenth while Kaillie Humphries finished 14th

Results:

Pos Names Nation Bib Run 1 Run 2 Total
1 Melbardis/Dreiskens/Vilkaste/Strenga LAT 3 54.86 55.17 1:50.03
2 Kasjanov/Huzin/Pushkarev/Zaytsev RUS 2 54.78 55.27 1:50.05
3 Arndt/Rödiger/Heber/Putze GER 6 55.20 55.47 1:50.67
4 Kripps/Randall/Barnett/Coakwell CAN 4 55.23 55.62 1:50.85
5 Zakharov/Mokrousov/Antukh/Kondratenko RUS 7 55.38 55.55 1:50.93
6 Walther/Bluhm/Bredau/Poser GER 8 55.76 55.35 1:51.11
7 Cunningham/Clark/Harrison/Reed USA 5 55.39 55.73 1:51.12
8 Stulnev/Neustroev/Selikhov/Soldatenkov RUS 11 55.54 55.60 1:51.14
9 Holcomb/Olsen/Valdes/Michener USA 9 55.83 55.69 1:51.52
10 Spring/Plug/Kopacz/Kirkpatrick CAN 10 55.95 55.64 1:51.59
11 Lochner/Gerhardi/Kagerhuber/Paasche GER 14 56.10 55.96 1:52.06
12 Radjenovic/Vujanic/Krajisnik/Bundalo SRB 15 56.24 56.12 1:52.36
13 Meyers Taylor/Wickline/Cremin/Adams USA 13 56.26 45.18 1:52.44
14 Humphries/Dale/McClelland/Poloniato CAN 12 56.42 56.04 1:52.56
15 Peter/van der Zijde/Amrhein/Badraun SUI 1 55.07 58.64 1:53.71