Canada's Justin Kripps drives bobsleigh to 6th place at Altenberg
New two-man team reveals future promise with quick starts
Canada's Justin Kripps and Alex Kopacz put down two of the fastest starts while sliding to a sixth-place finish on one of the toughest tracks in the world as the World Cup bobsleigh two-man season got underway in Altenberg, Germany.
Germany's Francesco Friedrich and Thorsten Margis clocked the winning time at 1:52.56. Latvia's Oskars Melbardis and Daumants Dreiskens slid to the silver-medal step on the podium with a time of 1:53.02, while Korea's Yungjong Won and Youngwoo Seo hopped onto the podium in third place with a time of 1:53.04.
Competing in their first race together, Kripps of Summerland, B.C., and Kopacz, of London, Ont., had the second and third-fastest start times while sliding to sixth spot in the snow with a time of 1:53.63 on the punishing Altenberg track.
"It was pretty good today. It is always good to get into the top-six in a snow race because anything can happen," said Kripps. "I really like these technical tracks. You have to be very focused.
The new sled is running well. I'm still trying to get a feel for it. We have all the parts needed for the podium, we just need to put it all together."
One of those key parts was adding the 25-year-old Kopacz to his team this year - a move that is increasing Kripps' start times and velocity down the track.
"It was a great start for us and something to celebrate," said Kopacz. "We came out of the groove in our second load which put us into a bit of skid which is not good, but our training is going well and we need to keep getting better."
Calgarians Chris Spring and Derek Plug did not qualify for the second run with the top-20 after placing 21st.
Kripps and Kopacz will be joined by Ben Coakwell and Joshua Kirkpatrick for Sunday's 4-man competition.
On Friday, Canada won gold in the women's bobsleigh race with Kaillie Humphries as the pilot with brakeman Melissa Lotholz.
With files from Bobsleigh Canada Skeleton