SALT LAKE CITY — Latvia’s no.1 four-man bobsled crew have claimed silver in the opening round of the FIBT World Cup on Sunday.
It is the second time that Latvians have stood on the winners podium over the course of the season opening event, following Martin Dukurs’ gold in the skeleton on Thursday.
After finishing a disappointing 11th in the two-man bobsled on Friday, pilot Janis Minins and Daumants Dreiškins returned to the Park City track on Sunday looking to make amends for Friday’s poor showing, where they were joined by teammates Oskars Melbārdis and Intars Dambis for the four-man bobsled.
After a slow start on run 1, Minins expertly piloted the Latvians through the course, picking up valuable milliseconds in doing so to see them finish fourth with a time of 48.30 seconds.
Latvia 2 (Edgars Maskalāns, Pavels Tulujevs, Raivis Broks, Mihails Arhipovs) recorded an identical start time to Latvia 1 on their first run but were not able to make up for a weak start through the remainder of their run to find themselves sitting in 11th with a time of 48.52 going into their second run.
This also meant that Latvia 2 would be the first of the Latvian teams on the track for the second run, stopping the clock at 48.24, the sixth quickest second-run time.
A number of the teams expected to shine, particularly the Americans, failed to deliver producing poor second starts. Injury also struck a number of the higher ranked teams meaning Latvia 1 just needed to produce another solid run, something they delivered on as they again recorded the fourth quickest time, albeit a little slower than their first run (134.9).
With other top teams slipping down the field on their second runs, Latvia 1 were rewarded for their consistency with their two fourth quickest times enough to see them finish second equal with Russia 2, while Canada 2 claimed the gold.
The Latvian contingent will now travel to Lake Placid for the second round of the FIBT World Cup starting on Nov. 20. Minins will be looking to take his four-man results and replicate that form in two-man bobsled whilst Latvia 2 will be looking for consistency over both runs.
