“I’m excited to have finished fourth, but it was a bittersweet victory,” Holcomb said.  “My goal was to better myself a little each year, which I have.  It’s bitter because I’ve been driving well all week, and we’ve been flying in training.  I made some driving mistakes and we had the wind issue yesterday, which kept us out of the medals.”

Holcomb maintained his fourth position from yesterday with the third and fourth fastest runs of the day, a 1:07.18 and 1:06.58, respectively. 

In the 2003-04 season, Holcomb placed twelfth at the two-man World Championship race in Königssee, Germany, and eighteenth at the 2004-05 two-man World Championships in Calgary, Canada.  Holcomb is now the current two-man World Cup leader after having won a gold and three silver medals this year, and has added a top six World Championship finish to his growing resume.

“Overall it was a good day,” Holcomb said. “ I’m happy with the result, because I know I’m improving.  My goal was to get better, and I did that.  Brock pushed really well over the last two days, and now it’s time to look towards the four-man race.”

Capturing the World Championship title was Germany’s Andre Lange, the reigning two and four-man Olympic champion, with a combined time of 4:26.62.  Lange and brakeman Kevin Kuske broke the start record on the first day, but Lange faced challenges from other strong drivers like Holcomb, having only two first-best, a second, and third fastest runs of the competition.

Finishing second was Ivo Rueegg from Switzerland, who lost his brakeman, Alexandr Streltsov, after the third run from a pulled hamstring.  Tommy Herzog replaced Streltsov for the final run, assisting Rueegg with the fifth best push, a 5.24, for a finish time of 1:06.22, fastest of the heat.  Rueegg finished with a combined time of 4:26.81, just 0.19 away from the gold.

In third was the Italian team of Simone Bertazzo and Samuele Romanini with a combined time of 4:27.28, just two-tenths of a second ahead of Holcomb and Kreitzburg.

Americans Kohn and Tomasevicz finished in fifteenth place with a total time of 4:30.11 after runs of 1:08.22 and 1:07.12, nineteenth and tenth best of the day.

The third American sled of Stephan Bosch and Alex Sprague did not compete today after crashing out of the infamous Horseshoe corner in yesterday’s second run.  Before the crash, the team had a first run time of 1:07.56, fourteenth best of the heat.

On Feb. 3 and 4 the men’s bobsled team will prepare to claim the four-man World Championship title in St. Moritz.  Competition will be at 9 a.m. CET (3 a.m. EST) each day.

The two-man bobsled World Championship race in St. Moritz will be broadcast on SPEED Channel today, Sunday, Jan. 28 from 1-2 p.m. EST.  For complete results of the race, please visit www.bobsleigh.com, the Web site of the Fédération International de Bobsleigh et de Tobogganning (FIBT).

Results:

Andre Lange and Kevin Kuske (GER1) 4:26.62 (1:06.75, 1:06.42, 1:06.99, 1:06.46); 2. Ivo Rueegg and Alexandr Streltsov (SUI1) 4:26.81 (1:07.00, 1:06.49, 1:07.10, 1:06.22); 3. Simone Bertazzo and Samuele Romanini (ITA1) 4:27.28 (1:06.53, 1:06.75, 1:07.29, 1:06.71); 4. Steven Holcomb and Brock Kreitzburg (USA1) 4:27.50 (1:06.90, 1:06.84, 1:07.18, 1:06.58); 5. Daniel Schmid and Thomas Lamparter (SUI2) 4:27.61 (1:06.80, 1:07.10, 1:07.29, 1:06.71); 6. Wolfgang Stampfer and Martin Lachkovics (AUT1) 4:28.15 (1:07.10, 1:07.01, 1:07.36, 1:06.68);…15. Mike Kohn and Curt Tomasevicz (USA2) 4:30.11 (1:07.45, 1:07.32, 1:08.22, 1:07.12);…DSQ Stephan Bosch and Alex Sprague (USA3) DSQ (1:07.56, DNF);