The bobsleigh team led by Justin Kripps of Summerland will be racing in the World Championships in St. Moritz, Switzerland, over the next two weekends. His is one of three Canadian sleds to qualify for the championships.
After successful bobsleigh races at Koenigsee, Germany, the previous weekend, Team Kripps and the rest of Team Canada headed off to Igls, Austria. The coaches then decided to send Team Kripps back to Koenigsee to compete in the Europa Cup two-man race there. The Europa Cup circuit is one level down from the World Cup circuit but points still count for overall standings. A win at Europa Cup level is the equivalent of 13th place at World Cup level. Since Team Kripps had missed the Altenberg World Cup event, it was a gamble to have them dash over at 5 a.m. to race in Koenigsee and then be back at Igls for the World Cup race the next day.
It turned out to be a good move. Team Kripps, consisting of Kripps and Nick Carriere, took the silver medal with a time 3/100ths of a second off the gold. Then Kripps and Sam Giguere placed 11th in Igls. This cemented their place in the upcoming World Championships, giving them an overall ranking of 12th in the two-man event. Canada #2 is ranked 11th and Canada #1 is ranked second.
The four-man event in Igls was a strange race. All the North American teams had poor results. Even USA #1, the current World and Olympic title holder, placed 18th, unlike its usual placing in the top 10.
USA #2 placed 20th and USA #3 23rd. Team Kripps placed 22nd and Canada #2 placed 24th.
Canada #1 were the only North Americans to place in the top 10 and barely, placing 10th.
Kripps says it is a race they would all forget.
He said he and his teammates don’t know what went wrong, but are just going to focus on the upcoming races.
Going into the World Championships Team Kripps has a 21st place ranking in four-man, just behind Canada #2 at 20th. Currently both Canada #2 and #3 are one race short in four-man. However, the combined two- and four-man ranking puts Team Kripps at 15th just behind Canada #2 at 14th. Canada #1 is 5th.
So now it’s full steam ahead to World Championships which will be held in St. Moritz over the next two weekends.
They will have a format like the Olympic Games where each event has four heats.
The winners are determined by adding times from all four heats together.
Only the top 20 from the first two heats will go to the third heat.
The first and second two-man heats will be on Saturday and the third and fourth on Sunday.
The first and second four-man heats will be on Feb. 2 and the third and fourth on Feb. 3.
