“The team event was a lot of fun,” women’s skeleton World Champion Noelle Pikus-Pace said.  “All of us had a great time, and I think we represented the U.S. well.  We’re all really proud and happy to have finished second.”

The team event consists of four heats: first heat is men’s skeleton, second heat women’s bobsled, third heat women’s skeleton, fourth heat men’s two-man bobsled.  The World Championship team is named based on the nation with the lowest combined time in all four heats.

Germany claimed the gold in the team event with a combined time 4:43.04, only 0.17 ahead of the U.S.  Taking bronze was the home-track Swiss team with a total time of 4:43.72, almost half a second behind the Americans.

Eric Bernotas (Avondale, Pa.), men’s skeleton World Championship silver medallist, took the first run for the U.S., finishing with a time of 1:10.46, second best in the heat.World Champion and home-track competitor Gregor Staehli had the fastest men’s skeleton run with a 1:10.42, giving the Swiss a 0.04 lead.

Women’s bobsled raced in the second heat, where U.S. athletes Erin Pac (Farmington, Conn.) and brakewoman Emily Azevedo (Chico, Calif.), who both made their World Cup debut two weeks ago in Igls, Austria, had a third place run of 1:10.86.  World Cup leader Sandra Kiriasis from Germany had the fastest run of the heat, with a 1:09.63, with home-track competitor Sabine Hafner in second with 1:10.59.

World Champion Noelle Pikus-Pace (Orem, Utah) proved her dominance again today with the fastest run in the women’s skeleton heat, a 1:12.55.  Almost three-tenths of a second behind was Canadian Amy Gough with a 1:12.73, with World Championship silver medallist Maya Pederson in third after a run of 1:12.96.

Men’s two-man bobsled raced in the final heat of the team event.  U.S. two-man National Champions Mike Kohn (Chantilly, Pa.) and Curt Tomasevicz (Lincoln, Nebraska) had the third fastest run of the heat with a time of 1:09.34.  German Karl Angerer had the fastest heat, 1:08.89, with Russian Dmitry Abramovitch in second with a time of 1:09.15.

After today’s silver medal performance, the U.S. has won five medals in four World Championship events.

The team decided that overall World Cup bobsled leader Steven Holcomb (Park City, Utah) and Brock Kreitzburg (Akron, Ohio) should concentrate on the four-man World Championship race that will be held this Saturday and Sunday, Feb. 3 and 4, at 9:00 CET (3 a.m. EST), and Shauna Rohbock (Orem, Utah) and Valerie Fleming (Foster City, Calif.), ranked second in overall women’s bobsled World Cup standings, should prepare and concentrate on the women’s World Championship race which begins tomorrow, Feb. 2 at 9:00 CET, finishing on Saturday, Feb. 3 at 13:30 CET (7:30 a.m. EST).

Results:

1. Kleber, Kiriasis and Wiacker, Riekewald, Angerer and Kuehne (Germany) 4:43.04 (1:11.05, 1:09.63, 1:13.47, 1:08.89); 2. Bernotas, Pac and Azevedo, Pikus-Pace, Kohn and Tomasevicz (USA) 4:43.21 (1:10.46, 1:10.86, 1:12.55, 1:09.35); 3. Staehli, Hafner and Sutter, Pederson, Ruegg and Lamparter (Switzerland) 4:43.72 (1:10.42, 1:10.59, 1:12.96, 1:09.75); 4. Boehm, Stepenko and Cruickshank, Gough, Rush and Gray (Canada) 4:45.18 (1:10.82, 1:12.03, 1:12.73, 1:09.60); 5. Chudinov, Kovalenko and Vinohodova, Mironova, Abramovitch and Andrynin (Russia) 4:46.62 (1:11.16, 1:11.83, 1:14.48, 1:09.15); 6. Dukers, Aparjode and Kozica, Vitola, Arhipovs and Dambis (Latvia) 4:47.80 (1:10.97, 1:11.57, 1:15.76, 1:09.50); 7. Mair, Gillarduzzi and Mellano, Bramante, Mayrl and Torchio (Italy) 4:52.95 (1:13.76, 1:11.63, 1:17.02, 1:10.54);