PARK CITY, Utah - Canada's Lyndon Rush drove to the gold medal in the opening four-man World Cup bobsled race of the season on Saturday.  

Rush of Humboldt, Sask.,  and the team of Chris Le Bihan of Kelowna, B.C., Dan Humphries and Lascelles Brown, both of Calgary, finished two runs in one minute 36.43 seconds.

Latvia's Janis Minins was second, tied with Russia's Dmitry Abramovitch on the 2002 Olympic track, both of them finishing only 0.02 seconds behind the Canadian sled.

Reigning world champion Steven Holcomb, racing in his hometown, slipped getting into his sled on the second run, smashed into a wall and settled for seventh.

Veteran U.S. driver Todd Hays led after the first run, then injured his left hamstring at the start of the second and finished sixth.

The 40-year-old Hays opened his season with a silver medal in Friday's two-man opener. But on Saturday, he sat in the changing room for about 15 minutes after the race, his left leg propped up on a bench and with an icepack trying to numb his pain. There was no immediate word on the severity of the injury.

He's not the only driving star with injury woes right now. The German considered by many to be the sport's best driver ever might now be facing long odds just to make it to the Vancouver Games.

Andre Lange , who drove to gold at the 2002 and 2006 Olympics in four-man bobsledding plus captured gold at the 2006 Turin Games in two-man, will be off the World Cup circuit indefinitely with a groin injury. He will head back to Germany instead of flying to Lake Placid, New York for next week's circuit stop.

Lange aggravated the injury in the two-man on Friday, and was so hurt on Saturday that he didn't even push the sled. He started already seated inside the sleigh, his three pushers doing all the work and then hopping inside. He finished 17th.

"We have to take a break and get ready for Europe,'' Lange said. "My leg is not ready. It makes no sense to go to Lake Placid. The doctors, the coaches and I sat together, talked about it and the decision is to take a break and try to get ready.

"The plans, the whole thing is struggling. We'll talk about it and try to find a new way to come back and come back strong.''