It was a tale of two Oskars with Oskars Kibermanis sealing his first ever International Bobsleigh and Skeleton Federation World Cup victory. Finishing in second place, World Champion Oskars Melbardis secured his first podium finish of the season.
"The four-man bobsleigh race was exceptionally close; just 0.01 seconds separated the first three sleds after the first run. However, the Latvian bobsleigh pilot and his brake team Janis Jansons, Matiss Miknis and Raivis Zirups eventually managed to push their team mates Oskars Melbardis/Daumants Dreiskans/Arvis Vilkaste/Janis Strenga (LAT, 0.13 seconds behind) into second place following the second heat," said the IBSF account of the contest.
— Bobslejs.lv (@bobslejsLV) January 22, 2017
During the second run, Kibermanis and company set new season bests for both the starting time (4.96 seconds) and the track record (1:04.05 minutes) at the Olympia Bobrun St. Moritz-Celerina track.
Third place went to Francesco Friedrich/Candy Bauer/Martin Grothkopp/Thorsten Margis of Germany.
Watch highlights of the run that secured gold below.
Highlights of Oskars Kibermanis (LAT) his race which resulted in gold at the #BMWworldcup 4-man #bobsleigh in St. Moritz! #ibsf #video pic.twitter.com/MP88F21fLb
— IBSF (@IBSFsliding) January 22, 2017
The double-medal haul came just two days after Latvia's Martins Dukurs triumphed in the skeleton event at the same track, as previously reported by LSM.
