Annen again

Swiss Martin Annen and his crew of Andi Gees, Beat Hefti and Cédric Grand won the fifth FIBT World Cup race with a total time of 1.51,42 minutes, set the push and track record in the first heat with 4.68 and 55.54 seconds and came second in the second run in 55.88.

They were 15 hundredths faster than the Canadians with Lueders, Ken Kotyk, Morgan Alexander and Lascelles Brown who finished in a total time of 1.51,57 and heats of 55.71 and 55.86. German René Spies with Franz Sagmeister, Ronny Listner and Alexander Metzger improved from fifth to third position in 1.51,88 (55.80 + 56.08) beating their fellow-Germans Matthias Hoepfner, Marc Kuehne, Andreas and Stefan Barucha (1.51,89) by one hundredth for the bronze medal.

Russian 2005 European champion Alexander Zoubkov and his crew of Sergei Golubev, Alexei Seliverstov and Dmitry Stepushkin, who were runners-up after the first heat in 55.71, finished fifth in 1.51,99. However, Zoubkov extended his lead in the overall four-man World Cup to 435 points, followed by Annen (385), Lueders (360) and American Todd Hays who are tied for third place.

Hays, the 2002 Olympic silver medallist sustained a deep cut on his right foot at the start of the first heat, was taken to hospital and did not compete in the second run. Reigning World and World Cup champion André Lange of Germany was forced to withdraw from the events at Cesana Pariol due to a very bad cold. It is not sure whether he will compete in the FIBT World Cup events at St. Moritz, Switzerland, next weekend.