Lange Drives to Gold In Calgary 4-Man, Completes Sweep

CALGARY, Canada (December 2, 2006) – Andre Lange of Germany drove to a sweep of the gold medals Saturday night with a .10 second victory over Russia's Evgeni Popov in the FIBT 4-Man Bobsleigh World Cup.

Lange, double gold medalist at the 2006 Olympic Winter Games, won his second World Cup gold medal in as many days with a time of 1:47.92 (53.79, 54.13). He teamed with Alexander Roediger, Kevin Kuske and Martin Putze to claim the day’s two fastest starts of 5.03 and 5.06.

Russians Evgeni Popov, Roman Orechnikov, Dmitry Trunenkov and Dmitry Stepushkin earned silver in 1:48.02 (53.88, 54.14). It was the first podium finish ever for Popov. 2006 Olympic two-man silver medalist Pierre Lueders won his second bronze medal of the Calgary World Cup in a time of 1:48.37 (54.01, 54.36) with his crew of Ken Kotyk, David Bissett and Lascelles Brown.

In fourth were Alexandr Zoubkov, Filipp Egorov, Alexej Seliverstov and Evgeny Pechenkin of Russia in a time of 1:48.55 (54.16, 54.39), while the the USA's Steven Holcomb took fifth with Jesse Beckom III, TJ Burns and Brock Kreitzburg posting a 1:48.68 (54.55, 54.13). Latvian sled of Janis Minins, Daumants Dreiskens, Ainars Podnieks and Reinis Rozitis completed the top-six finishers with a time of 1:48.74 (54.34, 54.40).

The next World Cup four-man race is Dec. 9 in Park City. The Park City World Cup opens on Dec. 7 with the skeleton race, while the two-man and women’s bobsled races are Dec. 8.