Russian's four-man bobsled team took gold on the final day of the Olympics hosted by their nation, with the U.S. pulling a bronze at the event and Canada's team escaping unscathed from a harrowing crackup.
"In the third heat, [Russian bobsled pilot Alexander] Zubkov separated himself from [the] field, Latvia-1 pilot Oskars Melbardis stayed in second and USA-1 pilot Steve Holcomb leapfrogged Germany-1 pilot Maximilian Arndt and that's how the podium stacked – with impressive history made."
"Zubkov won in a four-heat time of 3 minutes, 40.60 seconds, becoming just the sixth person to win four-man and two-man gold in the same Olympics."
"Melbardis missed out – by nine-hundredths of a second – on giving Latvia its first gold medal in Winter Olympics history, but he will take silver, and Holcomb, who held off Russia-2 pilot Alexander Kasjanov by three-hundredths of a second, snuck in for bronze."
The medals were determined a day after Canada was eliminated in a harrowing crash that basically flipped their sled in the second run of the event. Fortunately, no one was hurt.
"The Canada 3 sled turned over on its side as it entered a corner and slid down the Sanki Sliding Center track out of control."
"Fortunately, pilot Justin Kripps and team members Jesse Lumsden, Cody Sorensen and Ben Coakwell escaped serious injury and were able to leave the crash scene without assistance."
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