Canadian bobsleigh pilot Justin Kripps and brakeman Cameron Stones set a new track record at the Whistler Sliding Centre on Friday night to start the BMW IBSF World Championships.
The duo followed up the record-smashing first run of 50.96 seconds with the fourth-best second run to sit behind only Germany's Francesco Friedrich and Thorsten Margis going into Saturday's final two runs. Kripps and Stones sit 0.12 seconds back. Germany's Nico Walther and Paul Krenz (0.29 seconds back), Great Britain's Brad Hall and Nick Gleeson (0.39 seconds back) and Latvia's Oskars Kiebermanis and Matiss Miknis (0.43 seconds back) round out the top five.
Canada's other two sleds had a mixed bag, as Chris Spring and Neville Wright sit tied for sixth, 0.55 seconds back, while Nick Poloniato and Ben Coakwell had a disastrous second run to leave them in last place out of the 31 sleds.
Heats 3 and 4 will start at 5 and 6:30 p.m., respectively, on Saturday.
The women will get things underway Saturday morning with Heat 1 kicking off at 11:30 a.m. before continuing Sunday at the same time. The first weekend of two will wrap Sunday afternoon with the bobsleigh and skeleton team event starting at 4 p.m.
Full results are available at www.ibsf.org while a full schedule is at https://www.whistlersportlegacies.com/whistler-sliding-centre/events/bmw-ibsf-world-championships-2019.
