Canada’s Chris Spring and Neville Wright win silver at bobsled World Cup

Dec 9, 2017 | 12:00 PM

WINTERBERG, Germany — Canada’s Chris Spring and Neville Wright earned silver in the two-man bobsled on Saturday in a World Cup race in Winterberg, Germany.

The newly formed duo, who won the gold medal two weeks ago at the Whistler Sliding Centre in B.C., in their first race together, captured their first World Cup medal outside of North America. They led all three Canadian men’s sleds into the top-five on a snowy and cold day in Germany. Canada’s Kaillie Humphries and Mellisa Lotholz also finished fourth in the women’s race.

“It is always great to be on the podium and Neville has been an amazing teammate. Not only is he pushing great, but he is giving me lots of confidence in my driving, and that’s what I need,” said the 33-year-old Spring. “I’m a mojo guy and when I have good mojo then the sled starts to get moving. It’s the X factor I always look for.”

Calgary’s Spring and Edmonton’s Wright climbed two spots in their final run to chalk up a combined-run time of one minutes 51.76 seconds on the 1,330-metre track to finish in a tie for second place with the German team of Francesco Friedrich and Thorsten Margis.

It was the fifth career two-man medal for Spring, who has two victories. He also has three four-man podium finishes. All of those triumphs have come on familiar tracks in Whistler, Calgary, Lake Placid, N.Y., and Park City, Utah.

“It is my first medal in Europe, but I feel like I’ve come close so many times on multiple tracks over here,” added Spring. “Finally cracking onto that podium outside of North America definitely helps my confidence knowing I can be successful anywhere.”

It was the 10th career World Cup medal for the 36-year-old Wright who provided the man power for the Canadian sled on the tricky German track.

“It actually felt really good from the start, and I’m like ‘this has to be fast,’” said Wright, following his fourth ever medal in the two-man event. “We got some mojo going into the race, so the plan was just to keep it moving, keep it going.”

Justin Kripps of Summerland, B.C., and Alex Kopacz of London, Ont., finished just shy of the podium in fourth spot with a time of 1:51.79.

Hamilton’s Nick Poloniato and Calgary’s Lascelles Brown completed one of the most successful days for the Canadian men’s bobsled program with a fifth-place finish at 1:51.80.

Kripps leads the standings and Spring sits second.

Calgary’s Humphries and Lotholz of Barrhead, Alta., were poised to reach their fourth straight podium after clocking the third fastest opening run. While the duo improved their start time on the second run, they dropped one spot off the podium into fourth at 1:55.22.

“Overall it’s a good day. It’s hard, the snow makes for a very unpredictable race. But I’m really happy with how I drove. This is one of my most difficult and challenging tracks,” said Humphries, who remains the overall leader on the World Cup. “I’ve finished seventh and ninth and 12th here so I can’t be mad at the fourth place.”

Germany’s Stephanie Schneider and Lisa Buckwitz set the time to beat at 1:54.90. Elana Meyers Taylor and Lauren Gibbs from the United States stopped the clock at 1:55.16 for second place. Mariama Jamanka and Annika Drazek, also of Germany, were third at 1:55.18.

Edmonton’s Alysia Rissling and Heather Moyse of Summerside, P.E.I., placed 16th at 1:56.49. Christine de Bruin of Stony Plain, Alta., and Toronto’s Cynthia Appiah did not qualify for the second run, finishing 21st.

The Canadian Press