Soviets slide to gold

Press, 24 February 1988, Page 33

Soviets slide to gold

NZPA-Reuter Calgary Janis Kipurs earned the Soviet Union their first Olympic bobsleigh gold medal in a two-man race battered by the weather and branded a debacle by leading drivers. In the most controversial event of the Calgary Winter Games to date, the two-man World Cup champions, Kipurs and his brakeman, Vladimir Kozlov, set a winning combined time of 3min 53.485. Wolfgang Hoppe, the East German defending

two and four-man champion, took silver on 3:54.19, with his compatriot, Bernhard Lehmann — the silver medallist four years ago — third on 3:54.64. Prince Albert of Monaco, racing in his first Olympics, finished twentyfifth in the two-man event. The final runs had been postponed for 24 hours after high winds blew grit on to the track, and they were held up a further four hours yesterday while race officials waited for the wind to drop and

the chute to be repaired. The ice actually became faster during the final runs, reversing normal conditions and adding to the bitterness of drivers dissatisfied with the first two runs when sun, wind and the pounding of a record 41 sleds slowed the track dramatically. “The whole thing is ridiculous. It’s completely senseless,” said the West German driver, Anton Fischer. “This has nothing to do with the Olympics. The best thing to do would be to blow up this track.”