Rico Peter in second ahead of Johannes Lochner

Whistler (RWH): Alexander Kasjanov of Russia has become the first four-man bobsleigh winner in the 2016/2017 BMW IBSF World Cup. With his teammates, Alexey Zaytsev, Aleksei Pushkarev and Maxim Belugin, the runner-up in the 2015 European Championships was 0.20 seconds faster than the second-place Swiss crew of Rico Peter/Bror van der Zijde/Simon Friedli/Thomas Amrhein at the race at Whistler Sliding Centre. Johannes Lochner (GER) and his team of Matthias Kagerhuber, Sebastian Mrowka and Christian Rasp moved from eleventh place after the first heat into a place on the podium, finishing third and 0.43 seconds behind the victorious Russian foursome.

Steven Holcomb of the USA, and his teammates Carlos Valdes, James Reed and Samuel Michener, came fourth, missing out on the podium by three hundredths of a second. Fourth place is the best result for the four-man bobsleigh gold medalist at the 2010 Olympics in Whistler since his World Cup win in Königssee (GER) in January 2014.

Alexander Kasjanov (RUS, 225 points) leads the overall standings for the 2016/2017 BMW IBSF World Cup following the first of eight races, followed by Rico Peter (SUI, 210) and Johannes Lochner (GER, 200). ©RWH2016-2017