Date | 20 – 21 February 1998 | |
---|---|---|
Status | Olympic | |
Location | The Spiral, Asakawa, Nagano | |
Participants | 128 from 25 countries | |
Format | Four runs, total time determined placement. | |
Details | Curves: 15 Length: 1360 m Start Altitude: 1028 m Vertical Drop: 113 m |
Whilst German sleds had won the last three editions of the world championship the German team arrived in Japan without the 1997 champion Wolfgang Hoppe who had retired at the end of the 1997 season. Strong candidates for the medal positions came from as many as eight different countries which was a sign that international competition had become much closer in the preceding years.
Bad weather marred the first day of competition and the scheduled second run was cancelled. The Germany II sled piloted by Christoph Langen was the only crew to record consistently good times over the first two completed runs and held a healthy lead entering the final run. They avoided any serious mistakes and posted a time that gave them a comfortable victory. Behind Langen the other medals were decided by miniscule margins. France were in sixth place after the second run, behind a trio tied for third place, and they were forced to ensure a nervous wait after they completed their run. Both the second Swiss sled and USA I missed the French total time by just 0.02 of a second whilst the British team finished absolutely level with France in what was to prove a tie for bronze behind Switzerland I. France had competed in Olympic bobsleigh since the inaugural event in 1924 but had never before won a medal of any colour. Great Britain’s wait was not quite as long but it had still been 44 years since the British flag had been hoisted at a bobsleigh medal ceremony.
Pos | Competitors | NOC | Time | Run #1 | Run #2 | Run #3 | ||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Germany 2 | GER | 2:39.41 | 52.70 (1) | 52.90 (1) | 53.81 (=8) | Gold | |||||
Christoph Langen • Markus Zimmermann • Marco Jakobs • Olaf Hampel | ||||||||||||
2 | Switzerland 1 | SUI | 2:40.01 | 53.13 (=8) | 53.15 (2) | 53.73 (=4) | Silver | |||||
Marcel Rohner • Markus Nüssli • Markus Wasser • Beat Seitz | ||||||||||||
=3 | Great Britain | GBR | 2:40.06 | 52.77 (2) | 53.58 (10) | 53.71 (3) | Bronze | |||||
Sean Olsson • Dean Ward • Courtney Rumbolt • Paul Attwood | ||||||||||||
=3 | France | FRA | 2:40.06 | 53.13 (=8) | 53.30 (3) | 53.63 (1) | Bronze | |||||
Bruno Mingeon • Emmanuel Hostache • Éric Le Chanony • Max Robert | ||||||||||||
5 | United States 1 | USA | 2:40.08 | 52.93 (4) | 53.42 (4) | 53.73 (=4) | ||||||
Brian Shimer • Chip Minton • Randy Jones • Garrett Hines | ||||||||||||
6 | Latvia | LAT | 2:40.26 | 52.98 (5) | 53.50 (=7) | 53.78 (6) | ||||||
Sandis Prūsis • Egils Bojārs • Jānis Ozols • Jānis Elsiņš | ||||||||||||
7 | Switzerland 2 | SUI | 2:40.28 | 52.88 (3) | 53.47 (6) | 53.93 (=13) | ||||||
Christian Reich • Steve Anderhub • Thomas Handschin • Cédric Grand | ||||||||||||
8 | Germany 1 | GER | 2:40.32 | 53.12 (7) | 53.50 (=7) | 53.70 (2) | ||||||
Harald Czudaj • Torsten Voss • Steffen Görmer • Alexander Szelig | ||||||||||||
=9 | Canada 1 | CAN | 2:40.39 | 53.14 (10) | 53.44 (5) | 53.81 (=8) | ||||||
Pierre Lueders • Ricardo Greenidge • Jack Pyc • Dave MacEachern | ||||||||||||
=9 | Austria 1 | AUT | 2:40.39 | 53.10 (6) | 53.50 (=7) | 53.79 (7) | ||||||
Hubert Schösser • Peter Leismüller • Erwin Arnold • Martin Schützenauer | ||||||||||||
11 | Canada 2 | CAN | 2:41.14 | 53.52 (11) | 53.69 (13) | 53.93 (=13) | ||||||
Chris Lori • Ben Hindle • Matt Hindle • Ian Danney | ||||||||||||
12 | United States 2 | USA | 2:41.27 | 53.74 (15) | 53.72 (14) | 53.81 (=8) | ||||||
Jim Herberich • Darrin Steele • John Kasper • Bob Olesen | ||||||||||||
13 | Czech Republic | CZE | 2:41.29 | 53.61 (12) | 53.80 (16) | 53.88 (11) | ||||||
Pavel Puškár • Peter Kondrát • Pavel Polomský • Jan Kobián | ||||||||||||
14 | Italy 1 | ITA | 2:41.43 | 53.84 (16) | 53.68 (12) | 53.91 (12) | ||||||
Günther Huber • Antonio Tartaglia • Massimiliano Rota • Marco Menchini | ||||||||||||
15 | Japan 1 | JPN | 2:41.55 | 53.73 (14) | 53.87 (18) | 53.95 (15) | ||||||
Naomi Takewaki • Hiroaki Ohishi • Takashi Ohori • Masanori Inoue | ||||||||||||
16 | Japan 2 | JPN | 2:41.96 | 54.02 (19) | 53.66 (11) | 54.28 (16) | ||||||
Toshio Wakita • Yasuo Nakamura • Toshiya Onoda • Shinji Aoto | ||||||||||||
17 | Norway | NOR | 2:42.07 | 53.96 (18) | 53.78 (15) | 54.33 (17) | ||||||
Arnfinn Kristiansen • Jørn Stian Dahl • Peter Kildal • Dagfinn Aarskog | ||||||||||||
18 | Austria 2 | AUT | 2:42.14 | 53.92 (17) | 53.83 (17) | 54.39 (18) | ||||||
Kurt Einberger • Thomas Bachler • Georg Kuttner • Michael Müller | ||||||||||||
19 | Russian Federation | RUS | 2:42.38 | 53.72 (13) | 53.95 (19) | 54.71 (20) | ||||||
Pavel Shcheglovsky • Aleksey Seliverstov • Vladislav Posedkin • Konstantin Dyomin | ||||||||||||
20 | Italy 2 | ITA | 2:43.02 | 54.07 (20) | 54.09 (20) | 54.86 (22) | ||||||
Fabrizio Tosini • Andrea Pais de Libera • Enrico Costa • Sergio Chianella | ||||||||||||
21 | Jamaica | JAM | 2:43.76 | 54.41 (21) | 54.55 (22) | 54.80 (21) | ||||||
Dudley Stokes • Winston Watts • Chris Stokes • Wayne Thomas | ||||||||||||
22 | Poland | POL | 2:43.79 | 54.71 (22) | 54.45 (21) | 54.63 (19) | ||||||
Tomasz Żyła • Dawid Kupczyk • Krzysztof Sieńko • Tomasz Gatka | ||||||||||||
23 | Australia | AUS | 2:44.88 | 54.72 (23) | 54.93 (24) | 55.23 (24) | ||||||
Jason Giobbi • Scott Walker • Ted Polglaze • Adam Barclay | ||||||||||||
24 | Hungary | HUN | 2:44.92 | 55.16 (25) | 54.82 (23) | 54.94 (23) | ||||||
Nicholas Frankl • Péter Pallai • Zsolt Zsombor • Bertalan Pintér | ||||||||||||
25 | Bosnia and Herzegovina | BIH | 2:45.67 | 55.26 (26) | 55.11 (25) | 55.30 (25) | ||||||
Zoran Sokolović • Nihad Mameledžija • Edin Krupalija • Mario Franjić | ||||||||||||
26 | Chinese Taipei | TPE | 2:45.95 | 55.30 (27) | 55.13 (26) | 55.52 (26) | ||||||
Sun Kuang-Ming • Duh Maw-Sheng • Chang Mau-San • Cheng Jin-Shan | ||||||||||||
27 | Romania | ROU | 2:46.06 | 55.01 (24) | 55.37 (27) | 55.68 (27) | ||||||
Florian Enache • Marian Chițescu • Iulian Păcioianu • Mihai Dumitrașcu | ||||||||||||
28 | Monaco | MON | 2:47.14 | 55.58 (28) | 55.70 (30) | 55.86 (29) | ||||||
Albert, Prince Grimaldi • Pascal Camia • Jean-François Calmes • Gilbert Bessi | ||||||||||||
29 | United States Virgin Islands | ISV | 2:47.16 | 55.80 (30) | 55.52 (28) | 55.84 (28) | ||||||
Keith Sudziarski • Christian Brown • Paul Zar • Jeff Kromenhoek | ||||||||||||
30 | Ireland | IRL | 2:47.23 | 55.79 (29) | 55.57 (29) | 55.87 (30) | ||||||
Jeff Pamplin • Simon Linscheid • Garry Power • Terry McHugh | ||||||||||||
31 | Greece | GRE | 2:48.26 | 55.94 (31) | 56.18 (32) | 56.14 (31) | ||||||
Greg Sebald • Tasos Papakonstantinou • Peter Kolotouros • John-Andrew Kampanis | ||||||||||||
Puerto Rico | PUR | [2:49.76] | 56.45 (32) | 55.96 (31) | [57.35] ( | 2 | ||||||
Liston Bochette • Jorge Bonnet • José Ferrer • Joe Keosseian |