Whitby’s Cam Stones hoping to slay the dragon in tonight’s 4-Man Olympic bobsleigh final

It is redemption day at the Yanquing National Sliding Centre for Justin Kripps and Cam Stones, who will try once again to attempt the slay the dragon in the Olympic 4-Man Bobsleigh competition in Beijing.

Kripps, the co-defending gold medalist in the 2-man race, and his new partner Stones of Whitby, were a medal favourite on Tuesday after finishing second on this year’s World Cup circuit in the 2-Man event. But the track, with its infamous ‘dragon’s tail’ S-bend in turns 12 &13, got the best of them early and the duo finished tenth.

Tonight they get a chance at payback in the 4-man, with Ryan Sommer and Ben Coakwell in the mix as well. The foursome wracked up three medals in World Cup races this season and are, as Kripps and Stones were in the 2-man, medal favourites in this event.

Kripps’ crew go off 5th tonight in the first run, right behind the number one ranked team led by Germany’s Friedrich, who won 2-Man gold Tuesday (to go with the 2-Man gold he shared with Kripps in 2018) and is also the defending gold medalist in the 4-Man event.

Other Canadian crews, piloted by Chris Spring (who finished seventh in the 2-Man), and Taylor Austin (who finished 20th), will race 15th and 16th, respectively. Spring will have Mike Evelyn, Sam Giguere and Cody Sorensen in his sled while Austin’s crew will include Daniel Sunderland, Jay Dearborn and Chris Patrician.

There will be two runs tonight and final two races will go off Saturday night.

Kripps was sixth in this event in 2018 in PyeongChang (with Alex Kopacz, Jesse Lumsden and Oluseyi Smith), while Nick Poloniato (with Stones, Coakwell and Joshua Kirkpatrick) finished 12^th and Spring (with Lascelles Brown, Bryan Barnett and Neville Wright) was 16^th.

Tonight’s event also marks the return of the Jamaican bobsled team after an absence of 24 years. The Jamaican team was immortalized by the 1993 John Candy film ‘Cool Runnings,’ about the team’s appearance in the 1988 Calgary Olympic Games.