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CALGARY, Alberta (AP) — Latvia's Oskars Melbardis and brakeman Daumants Dreiskens won the World Cup two-man bobsled race Friday night at Canada Olympic Park.
Melbardis and Dreiskens had a two-run time of 1 minute, 49.60 seconds.
"First run there were some mistakes, but we focused on the second run," Melbardis said. "It was a great run I think. We need to work on a better push, but it's good and we'll see what happens in Europe."
Germany's Francesco Friedrich and Martin Grothkopp were second, 0.03 seconds back.
Switzerland's Beat Hefti and Alex Baumann were third.
Steven Holcomb of Park City, Utah, and first-year breakman Aaron Victorian of Laie, Hawaii, finished eighth in 1:50.27.
"It's tough to swallow after sweeping the North American races last season," Holcomb said. "I hate losing. If I get to the finish and I'm not in first, I'm upset."
Holcomb tore an Achilles in the 2014 Olympic two-man race.
"I'm definitely not at 100 percent yet and I keep that in mind, but I still want to perform well," Holcomb said. "I made a huge mistake in Corners 5 and 6 in the second run, and we lost a lot of time there. The sled skid and it's hard to make up speed after that."
Codie Bascue of Whitehall, New York, and Alex Harrison of Edmonds, Washington, tied for 12th with teammates Nick Cunningham of Monterey, California, and Casey Wickline of Greenville, South Carolina.
On Saturday, Olympic women's champion Kaillie Humphries of Canada will race the two-woman sled and make her World Cup debut as a four-man pilot with an all-male crew.
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