Lumsden in medal contention at Olympics

WHISTLER — Edmonton’s Pierre Lueders is still in the hunt but there’ll be no 2010 Olympic medal in the two-man bobsleigh for Canadian pilot Lyndon Rush.

The 29-year-old from Humboldt, Sask., rolled his sled on his second run at treacherous corner 13 Saturday as Pork Chop Hill, Mount Carnage, whatever you want to call this run at the Whistler Sliding Centre was at its nightmarish best.

Lueders and brakeman Jesse Lumsden, a current CFL football player with the Edmonton Eskimos, is sixth with a two-run time of one minute, 44.06 seconds. He trails race leader Andre Lange of Germany by 0.75 seconds.

Rush and his brakeman Lascelles Brown, of Calgary, were OK after the crash. Rush had cuts on his hand.

“Just scratches. It was pretty minor. Surface wounds,” said Rush.

“I made a mistake,” he said, his heart more banged up than his body. “It didn’t come off. I steamrolled it. The first thing I said is ‘Sorry King’ [Brown’s nickname], and that’s still how I feel. He pushed like a champion. He deserves better than that. I really let him down.

“I’m OK.”

Brown helped Lueders win a silver medal in two-man at the 2006 Olympics in Turin.

“We were third after the first heat, anyone can crash on any track. We made a mistake in 50-50,” he said, using the name for the curve.

“The good thing is we have another shot in the four-man.”

“That’s just horrible, eh,” said Lueders, before turning and putting his head in his hands to collect himself.

“He hit the round going into 13. It’s a classic with that stupid corner. You hit that round, you get pushed away, you’re high on the end and you can pull all you want but it’s not coming off.

“Man, oh man, you do not want to see this at all, especially a teammate,” added Lueders.

Germany’s Thomas Florschuetz are second after two runs in 1:43.42. Russian pilot Alexsandr Zubkov is third in 1:43.81.

Now this event is looking like a race of attrition. The winner might be the guy who simply survives.

The event lost several top sleds before it even started.

Switzerland 1 withdrew after drive Beat Hefti sustained a concussion in training on Thursday. Swiss 2 driver Daniel Schmid had to pull out on Friday after a crash that saw his brakeman, Juerg Egger, sustain a cervical spine injury. He had to be flown by helicopter to Vancouver for further observation.

Latvia’s Janis Minins also pulled out after having emergency surgery to have his appendix removed. At least the track had nothing to do with the appendix.

On Saturday, three sleds rolled on the first run. Michael Klinger in the Liechtenstein 1 sled overturned in their first run.

Then Great Britain 1 with pilot John Jackson flipped. The last sled of the first heat, Australia 2, with driver Jeremy Rolleston slid upside down across the finish line.

Austrian pilot Wolfgang Stampfer was disqualified in heat one Saturday for having an overweight sled.

Lueders said he’ll change his setup for Sunday’s final two runs. It turns out he’s in a new sled after a shaky World Cup season. He’s in a new sled that’s a copy of the sled he rode between 1996 and 2006.

“I may as well break the news now,” he said. “I made the change in Igls [Austria]. I figured we had nothing to lose. It’s a risk but it’s something we had to do and I think it was the right decision. The way the season was going I thought let’s take a chance. We have nothing to lose.”

“I thought the second run would be better,” said Lueders of his second run. “We have another day tomorrow. If I can get my act together and put down runs, I’ve had much better runs than this.”

Lumsden had a hard time looking at the Rush accident.

“I’ll do what I can do to give Pierre the start he needs and we’ll chip away at it tomorrow,” he said.

“It’s frustrating,” he said for Rush. “He’s part of Canada, part of the Canadian team and we want to be on the podium together. If you saw Pierre’s reaction and my reaction, you know we’re not happy moving up because of a crash, especially when it’s our guys. I just hope they’re OK. I feel their frustration.”

Rush and Brown were third after the first heat, with a time of 51.67. Lueders and Lumsden were seventh in 51.79.

Lumsden thinks it’s still possible to hit the podium and he cited Friday skeleton gold medallist Jon Montgomery as inspiration.

“You saw it in skeleton yesterday,” he said. “You chip away and you chip away. That’s the key with a four-heat race. Tomorrow we’ll come in, focus, lay down two solid runs and let the other guys make a mistake. That’s exactly what Jon Montgomery did. He put the pressure on guys and that’s what we’re going to do tomorrow.”

Steven Holcomb’s USA 1 sled is fourth at 1:43.93. He and brakeman Curtis Tomasevicz are trying to bring their country Olympic bobsleigh gold for the first time since 1948 when Patrick Henry Martin stood atop the podium after the four-man in St. Moritz.

“The first heat I had a really great run except I made a mistake at [curve] 11 and 12 and you saw I almost crashed at 13,” said Holcomb. “We’re still in striking distance, we’re still right there. We are going to go back, look at the video, and see if we can find any mistakes.”

As for 13, he thought for a minute that he was in trouble.

“For a split second the alarms were going off in my head,” he said.

Sunday’s races will start later because of the warm temperatures here. Starts have been moved to 4 and 6:20 p.m. from 1:30 and 3:50.

Courtesy: Terry Bell
Vancouver Sun