Intro:

Steven Holcomb piloted USA 1 to victory in the opening four-man bobsled race of the World Cup season on Saturday (30th November) in Calgary, Canada, while on home ice, Olympic and world champion Kaillie Humphries won her ninth two-women race in her last 12 World Cup starts.

Script:

Partnering Steve Langton, Steven Holcomb opened the International Bobsleigh and Skeleton Federation World Cup season in Calgary on Friday (29th November) with a win in the two-man bobsled race.

On Saturday, Holcomb was on top of the podium again - this time in the four-man event.

He drove Langton, Curt Tomasevicz and Chris Fogt to victory with a time of 1 minute, 48.56 seconds after two runs.

There was a two-way tie for second place between Germany, piloted by Maximilian Arndt, and Russia, piloted by Alexander Zubkov.

Both those sleds were 0.09 seconds off the mark set by USA 1.

The triumphant American crew set the pace in the first heat with a start time of 5.04 seconds and a run of 54.08 seconds.

The start - so critical in bobsled - was 5.01 seconds in the second heat, and that gave Holcomb more than enough momentum to complete the job.

It was his first win in a four-man race since November 2010 in Whistler, the track where he won gold at the Vancouver Winter Olympic Games nine months earlier.

In the two-women bob, meanwhile, there was more success for Kaillie Humphries.

With Heather Moyse behind her, Humphries won her ninth race in her last 12 World Cup starts, clocking a two-run total of 1 minutes, 52.77 seconds.

U.S. Olympic bronze medallist Elana Meyers and Aja Evans were second, 0.56 of a second behind.

Meyers also took second to Canada's Humphries at the World Championships in January.

Americans Jamie Greubel and Katie Eberling placed third, marking Greubel's second career World Cup podium result.