Executing well, Team Rush busted out one of their best performances of the year, winning gold during the World Cup twoman bobsleigh races Saturday in Konigssee, Germany. At the same time they took a “stranglehold” on the top spot in the overall World Cup standings.
Sylvan Lake’s Lyndon Rush and Jesse Lumsden of Burlington, Ont. mixed together the perfect ingredients of two solid pushes with two consistent runs, shattering the field by nearly one-half of a second with a two-run time of 1:40.22 down the 14 corner track.
“This is a short track so you expect the times to be close, but we had things set up really well this week,” Rush said in a Bobsleigh Canada Skeleton press release.
“Jesse jarred his back loading in the first push so we said to each other the second run was going to be a ‘hard hat run’. He dug deep and gave me everything he had to get it done today.”
As the final sled in the final heat to bomb down the oldest artificial bobsleigh track in the world, the pair made adjustments as the two sleds in front of them smashed against the start wall.
“I loaded a little earlier on th second run to avoid any skidding. I hate slowing down on my second push more than anything, but I just wanted to make sure things were clean for Lyndon,” said Lumsden. “It is the greatest feeling in the world to know that you have won. It is what motivates me and keeps me going.
“We have such a great crew on this team. There may be only two of us in the sled but the entire team helped us win today. We win as a team and there is nothing that beats celebrating a victory as a team. We are going to start to see that in the four-man too,” Lumsden continued.
This was the second two-man victory and fourth podium of the season for Team Rush.
“I think as a kid winning meant everything but as I get older I hate to lose,” said Rush. “I just love executing. When I celebrate, before I even see the time, I love that feeling of just knowing you’ve executed well. We had that today. Things are going well and I am excited for the next couple of weeks leading to World Championships.”
Rush and Lumsden have combined to win six World Cup medals together, including three victories, in addition to sliding to the silver medal at last year’s World Championships.
Rush’s other brakeman, Calgary’s Lascelles Brown teamed with Justin Kripps of Summerland, B.C. to place 10th at 1:41.18.
In the four-man bobsleigh World Cup event Sunday, Rush piloted the Canada 1 team to a ninth place finish.
With crew Jesse Lumsden, Lascelles Brown and Ottawa’s Cody Sorensen, they finished with a two-run time of 1:38.76 down the 1,435 metre track. The next World Cup races are at Igls, Austria on the weekend, followed by the World Championships in St. Moritz, Switzerland the following weekend.