Germany's Florschuetz claims 1st 4-man bobsled win

Thomas Florschuetz piloted Germany 1 to victory for his first World Cup win in four-man bobsled Sunday, a day after claiming the two-man event.

Florschuetz's crew of Gino Gerhardi, Kevin Kuske and Thomas Blaschek finished in one minute 50.52 seconds to edge the Russian crew of Alexsandr Zubkov by 0.02 seconds.

Oskars Melbardis piloted Latvia to third, 0.13 seconds behind.

Chris Spring of Calgary, Timothy Randall of Toronto, Calgary's Derek Plug, and Graeme Rinholm of Saskatoon, were 10th on a rough day for Canada.

"It was a disaster all weekend to tell you the truth," said Canadian coach Tom Delahunty. "Snow caused problems all weekend and it was inconsistent for everyone with the track full of snow for some and not others.

"Today was just an absolute nightmare with snow coming on and stopping."

Lyndon Rush of Humboldt, Sask., rolled his sled on Corner 9 before flipping back onto its runners three turns later to finish the race. Rush and crew of Jesse Lumsden of Burlington, Ont., Ottawa's Cody Sorensen and Edmonton's Neville Wright wound up 20th.

Olympic champion Steven Holcomb's crew matched Florschuetz for the fastest second run but placed sixth in the first run to leave the Americans fourth overall.

Florschuetz has finished on the podium in each of the six events he has raced in this season, including the opening three four-man competitions.