Canada and Germany both win two-man Bobsleigh gold in dead heat
ByReuters
Updated 19/02/2018 at 16:23 GMT
Canada and Germany both won gold medals in the men's Olympic two-man bobsleigh on Monday after posting an identical time over the course of the four-heat competition.
Germany and Canada two-man Bobsleigh teams celebrate shared gold
Image credit: Eurosport
Canada's Justin Kripps and Germany's four-time world champion Francesco Friedrich both steered their sleds to identical times of three minutes 16.86 seconds.
Latvia's Oskars Melbardis slid to bronze.
It was the first dead-heat in the Olympic two-man bobsleigh competition since Nagano in 1998.
Ahead of the final run at the Olympic Sliding Centre, the fastest five pilots were separated by less than a quarter of a second as low temperatures helped provide blisteringly quick conditions.
Kripps, who tops the world bobsleigh driver rankings, had run three good heats, consistently placing first or second, and he needed to pull out another one to secure his first Olympic gold medal.
Four-times world champion Friedrich set the fastest time but Kripps, in the final run of the competition, exactly matched his mark of three minutes 16.86 seconds.
A delighted Kripps told reporters:
It’s great. It’s two more people who are as happy as we are. They’re amazing competitors, we’ve been friends and rivals for years so I couldn’t be happier.
Germany equalled Switzerland's Olympic record of five golds in the event.
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