NOTEBOOK

If training runs mean anything, Gustav Weder didn’t miss a beat in switching from the two-man bobsled, in which he won a gold medal Sunday, to the four-man, in which he will compete Saturday and Sunday. Weder’s team had the fastest time in both training runs Tuesday. In fact, the Swiss were 1-2-3 among the 34 teams.

Randy Will, who was eliminated from the two-man event in the U.S. race-off with Jim Herberich and Brian Shimer, was eighth in both training runs, beating Shimer, who was 14th, and Herberich, 20th. The three drivers will race off today for the two U.S. positions in the four-man event.

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Bo-Dyn engineers support the view of U.S. bobsled coaches and drivers that research and development should now turn to the runners, the steel blades on which the sled rides, but are concerned that a project that has raised $500,000 is almost running on empty and facing a costly proposition with runner development.

“The sleds are probably only 5% short of where we want them to be and it would be a shame if we can’t finance that other 5%,” Coach Joey Kilburn said.

Kilburn called Weder the world’s best driver, adding: “The only other difference in the sleds is in the runners.”

Shimer’s combined start time for the two runs Tuesday was .01 of a second behind Weder’s, but his overall time was 1.59 seconds behind.