His hands were a little scraped up from the crash, but really, what hurt most was on the inside. What hurt most was Lyndon Rush's heart. He knew it was his fault, all his fault. He let his brakeman down.
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Only Rush's feelings hurt after Canada 1's scary crash
- February 21, 2010 12:14 AM |
- By Joe O'Connor
Story provided by
WHISTLER, B.C. -- His hands were a little scraped up from the crash, but really, what hurt most was on the inside. What hurt most was Lyndon Rush's heart. He knew it was his fault, all his fault. He let his brakeman down.
"[Lascelles Brown] pushed like a champion," says Rush, pilot of the Canada 1 two-man bobsleigh, whose medal hopes ended on corner 13 at the Whistler Sliding Centre Saturday night. "He deserves better than that. I really let him down."
Canada 1 sat third after the first heat, while Brown and Rush were the fastest off the start in both heats. They were screaming down the track on their second run when Rush made a mistake in corner 11. So began a snowball effect that got worse and worse and worse until it was over in corner 13, with Canada 1 on its side, scraping across the finish line.
"I have never crashed there," Rush said. "I didn't bump my head very hard. I got a hard head. I played football for a lot of years. It was just more like, 'You got to be kidding me,' this didn't just happen.'"
But it did. Canada 1 is 21st, 3.06 seconds back of Germany 1, and with no chance of climbing anywhere near contention. It is not all bad news for Canada. Canada 2, piloted by veteran Pierre Lueders and pushed by CFL football player, Jesse Lumsden, is sixth heading into Sunday's final two heats, 0.25 seconds back of the bronze medal.
"We've got another day," Lueders said. "I've had much better runs than I am doing here."
Brown, the brakeman, described the experience of crashing in a bobsled as "someone punching you until the sled stops."
It hurts. And so does watching your medal hopes end early and knowing you are to blame.
"I'm okay," Rush said. "I'll come back, have some fun and go back down the track tomorrow."
About the Author
- Bruce Arthur Bruce Arthur is the National Post's national sports columnist. A Vancouver native, he has been with the Post since 2001, and a columnist since 2005. He is covering his second Olympics, after the 2008 Games in Beijing. He expects these Games to be slightly less propagandistic, and for China to win slightly fewer medals.
- Joe O'Connor Joe O'Connor is a roving sports feature writer with an open-ended beat. He joined the National Post in 2002, and has spent the past seven years bouncing from sport to sport, offering fresh perspectives and delivering unique stories wherever he goes. Whether it has been getting Don Cherry to open up about his love life; George Chuvalo to talk about heartbreaking loss; or racing down the side of a mountain with former Crazy Canuck, Dave Irwin, the veteran Postie chases a story wherever it leads. Before joining the newspaper he was a two-time silver medalist at the National Magazine Awards. Vancouver will be his first Olympics.
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