Bronze Rush for Canada in 4-man bobsleigh

America's Holcomb takes gold while Lange slips by for silver

Last Updated: Saturday, February 27, 2010 | 10:06 PM ET

By Malcolm Kelly, CBC Sports

Canada's Lyndon Rush, Chris LeBihan, Dave Bissett and Lascelles Brown took bronze in four-man bobsleigh on Saturday afternoon. (Jeff McIntosh/Canadian Press)

It says a lot for how Canada's bobsleigh programs have developed that Lyndon Rush seemed a little disappointed with his bronze medal after the conclusion of the final four-man runs on Saturday at the Winter Games.

Rush piloted Canada 1 to just the second medal ever in the event for the country, behind the gold in 1964 by driver Vic Emery.

Teammates David Bissett, of Edmonton, Calgary's Lascelles Brown and Chris Le Bihan of Grande Prairie, Alta., helped push Rush into second through three runs.

But it was the way the final run of four went down at the Whistler Sliding Centre that must have stuck just a little for the Sylvan Lake, Alta., resident.

He had left at the top of the track with a 9-100ths of a second lead on Germany's two-time Olympic four-man champion Andre Lange, and by the bottom was 1-100ths of a second back.

Lange, with four Olympic bobsleigh golds behind him including the two-man last Sunday, was outstanding in his final run on Saturday, putting in a 51.36-second effort — best of the 20 sleds.

Half an hour after the medal ceremony, Rush began to enjoy the moment.

"It wasn't triumphant then, it's starting to become triumphant now," said Rush, 29, who grew up in Saskatchewan. "We had 'em for three heats and to give it away in the last heat, I was mad.

"Yeah, we won an Olympic bronze, but I like racing, right, and when you come up short on the last heat, you're mad."

Holcomb ends U.S. gold drought

Speaking of history, Steven Holcomb of the United States led all four runs to take the first gold by his country since Francis Tyler in 1948.

His sled, nicknamed Night Train and crewed by Steve Mesler, Curtis Tomasevicz and Justin Olsen, finished with a combined time of 3:24.46, nicely ahead of Lange by 36-100ths of a second.

"They sort of embarrassed the field, to be honest with you," Rush told reporters afterwards. "They showed up in our back yard and whipped us. Hats off to them and they're great guys."

Holcomb was a little stunned about the whole thing.

"This will take a while for it to sink in," he said. "You work so hard, and when you finally get there it's like 'Well, now what? I don't know what to do.'

"We've worked so hard and gone through so much in the last four years to end on a high note like this is huge. It's overwhelming."

Canada 2, piloted by Pierre Lueders of Edmonton and with an all-rookie team of Justin Kripps, from Summerland, B.C., Jesse Lumsden and brakeman Neville Wright, both of Edmonton, was fifth, just 2-100ths of a second back of Germany 2.

Lueders came into the Olympics with two-man gold and silver already behind him, the former in 1998 at Nagano and the latter in 2006 at Torino, with Lascelles Brown.

He was fifth earlier this week in the two-man competition.

Rush and Brown spent much of the week with sore bodies from a crash in the second run of the two-man that turned the sled over on turn 13, and took away a chance at a medal.