PYEONGCHANG — Former Boise State sprinter Nick Cunningham saw his hopes of winning an Olympic medal in the two-man bobsled come to an earlier than expected end on Monday morning.
After struggling through his first two runs on Sunday, Cunningham and his two-man teammate, 30-year-old Hakeem Abdul-Saboor, slid all the way to 24th place in a field that featured just 30 competitors. In order to advance to Run No. 4, Cunningham and Abdul-Saboor would need to climb into the top 20 by bouncing back in Run No. 3.
The duo wound up with the 15th fastest time in the third stage of the event on Monday, clocking in at 49.62 seconds, easier their best performance of the event.
It was a promising performance, but it was not enough to overcome their slow start. Their cumulative time of 2:29.69 through three runs ended up being 0.19 seconds off the pace they needed to continue racing.
Cunningham, a three-time Olympian, failed to advance to Run 4 for the first time in his Olympic career. He and Abdul-Saboor finished in 21st place.
Cunningham still has one more competition left in PyeongChang. The former Bronco will team up with Saboor, Chris Kinney, and University of Idaho alumnus Sam Michener in the four-man bobsled event later this week.
