An incredible finish by Canada’s Justin Kripps and his team-mate Alexander Kopacz in the final run of Two Man Bobsleigh, equalled their combined time of 3.16.86 with their German rivals, Francesco Friedrich and Thorsten Margis. Thus, the gold medal was shared between the Canadians and the Germans, just as it happened in Nagano 1998 when Italians Gunther Huber and Antonio Tartaglia finished tied with Canadian duo Pierre Lueders and David MacEachern with a time of 3.37.24. Latvian bobsledders Oskars Melbardis and Janis Strenga took bronze. Germany have now won eight gold medals in the two-man bobsleigh since 1928.
Norway’s Havard Lorentzen snatched gold in the men’s 500m speed skating by setting a new Olympic record of 34.41 seconds. He was behind Cha Min Ky, representing the host nation, after the first 100 metres. Kyu had already equalled the Olympic record of 34.42 to move into the gold medal position with just three heats to go. But, in the final, Lorentzen went ahead of Kyu by one hundredth of a second to emerge victorious. Kyu had to settle for the silver and Gao Tingyu of China completed the podium with the bronze.
Norway won yet another team gold as they won the Men’s Team Ski Jumping. The team comprising of Daniel Andre Tande, Andreas Stjernen, Johann Andre Forfang and Robert Johansson combined to post 1098.5 points over two rounds. Germany’s Karl Geiger, Stephan Leyhe, Richard Freitag and Andreas Wellinger finished 22.8 points behind in silver. They finished just 3.3 points ahead of Poland’s Maciej Kot, Stefan Hula, Dawid Kubacki and Kamil Stoch. It is Norway’s second ski jumping gold medal of the Games after Maren Lundby won the women’s normal hill individual. Norway now has a new record of 28 medals in Pyeongchang, having achieved 26 in both 1994 and 2014.
