Summerland bobsleigh athlete Justin Kripps has been competing in the two-man event in PyeongChang, South Korea.
On Thursday, in the first official training heat, Kripps and teammate Alexander Kopacz finished fourth, with a time of 49.94 seconds, 0.28 seconds behind the first-place German team of Johannes Lochner and Christopher Weber.
In the second official training heat on Thursday, the Canadian duo finished third with a time of 50.17 seconds, 0.50 seconds behind the top-ranked German team, and 1/100th of a second behind the Canadian team of Christopher Spring and Neville Wright.
In the first official training heat on Friday, Friday, Kripps and Kopacz finished second with a time of 79.75 seconds, 0.06 seconds behind the Latvian team of Oskars Melbardis and Daumants Dreiskens.
Kripps and Kopacz finished fifth in the second official training heat on Friday with a time of 50.11 seconds, 0.24 behind the first-place German team of Nico Walther and Christian Poser.
In the first official training heat on Saturday, Kripps and Kopacz finished fifth with a time of 50.03 seconds. Their time was 0.25 seconds behind Nick Poloniato and Lascelles Brown of Canada. Second place in that heat went to the Canadian team of Christopher Spring and Neville Wright.
In the second official training heat on Saturday, Kripps and Kopacz took second place, with a time of 49.87 seconds, 0.15 seconds behind Spring and Wright.
The two-man heats will be held Sunday, Feb. 18 beginning at 3:05 a.m. Pacific Standard Time and Monday, Feb. 19 beginning at 3:15 a.m. Pacific Standard Time.
Kripps will also compete in the four-man bobsleigh event at the Winter Olympics. The training heats will be held Feb. 21, 22 and 23, while the official heats are Feb. 24 and 25.
Kripps has competed in bobsleigh since 2006. He was at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver on Pierre Lueders’ four-man crew.
He was the pilot of Canada-3 at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia. In the competition there, the sled overturned on turn 12 in the second heat and the team finished in last place.
Going into the games this year, Kripps has his first overall World Cup title with a bronze medal in the two-man race.
