Zubkov completes sweep

Zubkov and his team of Philip Egorov, Dmitry Trunenkov, Nikolay Hrenkov posted the best time of the first heat and held on for victory with a combined time of 1:34.62 minutes.

Manuel Machata of Germany sealed silver on the track built for the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Olympics, coming from fifth after the first run to post the fastest time – 47.13 seconds – in the second to finish 0.03 off the pace.

Machata still leads both the two-man and the four-man overall standings – some feat by the 26-year-old, who had never competed on the Whistler, Calgary or Park City tracks until the last month.

Canada’s Lyndon Rush, who won four-man Olympic bronze in Vancouver in February, completed the podium with a combined time of 1:34.72 – making amends for crashing in the two-man event.

“I let my team down in the two-man and they gave me a lift in this one with a great start time and it is great to get out of here with a podium,” he said.

Olympic champion and Park City native endured a bad weekend on home ice – slipping from third to seventh in the two-man and while he led at the halfway mark in the four-man, he slid down to sixth.