Mapp 0.03 back from bronze
Corie Mapp sits just outside the medal spots at the halfway mark of the Para Bobsleigh World Championships in St Moritz.
Mapp is fourth after Thursday’s first two runs, having clocked a combined time of 2 minutes 27.03 seconds in Switzerland.
The 44-year-old former soldier is only three hundredths of a second shy of bronze as he goes in search of what would be a 36th top tier medal in the sport.
Having won European Championship silver last week in Igls, Mapp was third fastest in today’s first run but only eighth quickest second time around.
Home favourite Christopher Stewart leads the way in 2.26.45, with Austria’s Hermann Ellmauer in second 19 hundredths of a second back and America’s Guillermo Castillo just over half a second behind Stewart and 0.03 in front of Mapp.
Mapp has two athletes on his tail in the top six as close friend and former double World Champion Lonnie Bissonnette from Canada is seven hundredths of a second back and Latvia’s Arturs Klots, who was crowned European Championship king on Friday, is eight hundredths shy of the British double amputee.
A podium place of any sorts would be a third World Championship medal for Mapp, who won bronze here in Moritz in 2017 and silver in Lake Placid in 2019. With an overall World Cup crown, the European Championship title and numerous individual World Cup golds to his name, the World Championships is the only major title to have eluded Mapp so far.
This is the first time that the Para Sport World Championships has been hosted at the same time and same venue as the Bobsleigh and Skeleton World Champs.
The final two heats begin at 8am GMT on Friday, with the 4-man bobsleigh taking centre stage on Saturday and Sunday when Brad Hall, Arran Gulliver, Taylor Lawrence and Greg Cackett go for GB.
