“I wasn’t expecting to reach a World Championship medal for a couple more years,” Holcomb said.  “To miss the medals by only two-hundredths of a second is hard.  To have lost by such a small amount, because two-hundredths of a second is unreal to imagine, I couldn’t tell you where I lost it or where I could have made it up. But I’m happy with our fourth place result.”

Holcomb and push athletes Pavle Jovanovic (Tom’s River, N.J.), Steve Mesler (Calgary, Alberta) and Brock Kreitzburg (Akron, Ohio) had a 5.12 start to propel the team to the second best time of the third heat, a 1:05.74.  The team’s push times were not greatly affected by Holcomb’s injury.

“My thumb seems to be OK,” Holcomb said.  “The doctor said it’s not as bad as it seemed to be yesterday.  They’re concerned that it’s a ligament tear and a serious bone bruise.  It was definitely on my mind all day.  I managed to push well, and the team did a great job.  Mesler, Pavle and Brock did their part to get us into the top group.”

In the fourth and final heat, Holcomb’s team pushed a strong 5.08 seconds, finishing nearly one second faster than his third heat with a 1:04.75 as the track sped up throughout the day.  It wasn’t enough to maintain his third place standing as other competitors took their final run, chasing the title.

Reigning Olympic and World Champion Andre Lange had a final run of 1:04.73 with his team of Rene Hoppe, Kevin Kuske and Martin Putze.  Entering the race in first position, Lange could not hang on to his standing.  The race would not be decided until the very last sled finished and every hundredth of a second counted.

“I looked around the start house today to see guys like Andre Lange, the Olympic Champion, and it feels incredible to be in the medal hunt with that caliber athlete,” Holcomb said.  “Even though we didn’t medal, the fact that I was even in the mix with World Championship athletes felt hard to believe.”  

Holcomb, at the age of twenty-six, is the youngest driver to place in the top ten standings at the World Championships.

Canadian Pierre Lueders and push crew Ken Kotyk, David Bissett and Lacelles Brown posted a final run of 1:04.64.  It was the home track team of Ivo Rueegg, Thomas Laparter, Beat Hefti and Cedric Grand that rose to the occasion, smashing the start and track record on their final run with a 4.98 and 1:04.54, respectively, putting them 0.23 seconds ahead of the field for the title.

Rueegg was named four-man bobsled World Champion after finishing with a total time of 4:20.86, having the fourth, second, third, and first best runs of the race.  Lueders moved up from fourth position yesterday to claim the silver with a time of 4:21.09, while Lange fell from the leader’s position into third, taking the bronze with a combined time of 4:21.10.  Holcomb and team finished in fourth, two one-hundredths of a second from the bronze.  Only .03 seconds separated second from fourth place. 

This is Holcomb’s third World Championship competition, having placed twelfth in the 2004 Konigsee race, and eighth in 2005 at Calgary.

“I’m still learning and improving,” Holcomb said.  “That was my goal.”

Kohn and his push team of TJ Burns (Blue Bell, Pa.), Alex Sprague (Indianapolis, Ind.) and Curt Tomasevicz (Lincoln, Nebraska) finished in sixteenth position with a combined time of 4:23.42 after final two runs of 1:06.02 and 1:05.87 today.  Kohn strained his left calf muscle during the push on the first run yesterday, causing him to struggle with starts in the remaining three heats.

World Championship standings are not included in World Cup points.  The World Cup will resume this week in Cesana, Italy, site of the 2006 Olympics, where Holcomb will look to extend his overall lead in standings.  Kohn will return to the U.S. today to begin rehab on his calf in preparation for next season.

The four-man bobsled World Championship race in St. Moritz will be broadcast on SPEED Channel today, Feb. 4, at 1 p.m. EST.  For full results of the race, please visit www.bobsleigh.com, the Web site of the Fédération International de Bobsleigh et de Tobogganning (FIBT).