LA PLAGNE, France — Canada's four-man bobsled crew led by Justin Kripps bounced back into fifth place on Sunday at a World Cup event.
Kripps, who dropped to 10th in Saturday's two-man race, clocked a two-run time of one minute 56.69 seconds on the 19-corner track.
It was the first time the 33-year-old Kripps and his crew of Cam Stones of Whitby, Ont., Ben Coakwell of Saskatoon and Ryan Sommer of White Rock, B.C., have competed on the slick French track.
Canada's top crew, which won the opening two four-man races in Lake Placid, N.Y., were in sixth place following the first run and climbed one spot in the standings after the final heat.
"We were decent today. We're just giving up too much time at the start the last couple of weeks to compete with the big guys, and it wasn't my best weekend of driving either," said Kripps. "We have plenty of work to do, but we are still happy with the fifth-place finish."
Germany's Francesco Friedrich, Thorsten Margis, Candy Bauer, and Alexander Schueller won the gold for the second straight week with a time of 1:55.85.
Johannes Lochner, Florian Bauer, Christopher Weber, and Christian Rasp, also of Germany, were second at 1:56.06.
The Latvian team of Oskars Kibermanis, Lauris Kaufmanis, Arvis Vilkaste and Matiss Miknis clocked-in at 1:56.18 for the bronze medal.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 12, 2020.
The Canadian Press