PARK CITY, Utah (AP) The margin was small, the pain immeasurable for Todd Hays.

The burly Texan from Del Rio tried his mightiest on Sunday to end the 46-year bobsled medal drought for the United States, but fell just three-hundredths of a seconds short.

Like Brian Shimer four years ago, Hays missed bronze by a whisker, finishing fourth behind Martin Annen of Switzerland.

Christoph Langen of Germany won gold, the medal he was missing to cap his great career. He came from behind on the final run to edge Christian Reich of Switzerland.

Since the 1972 Sapporo Games, the Germans and Swiss have combined for 42 of 51 bobsled medals.

For the United States, the dominant bobsled power in the first half of the 20th century, it was the third time since the 1988 Calgary Games an American team finished off the podium.

"I don't know if there's a worse place in sports than fourth place in the Olympics," said Hays. "It's going to sting for a long time."

Hays, who will also drive in the four-man later in the week, fell too far behind on Saturday when he and brakeman Garrett Hines had a bad start on the second run. That made the loss of Hays' top brakeman, Pavle Jovanovic, all the more telling. Jovanovic was suspended late last month for two years after failing a drug test.

"That .03 right there is because of him losing his brakeman," said Shimer, who missed the bronze at Nagano by .02, as did Brent Rushlaw at the Calgary Games. "When I came here, I said the drought would end here, and I'm still going to say that. There's no doubt in my mind."

Shimer, of Naples, Fla. finished ninth in his fifth and final Olympics.

Hays began the day in fifth place and stormed past defending Olympic champion Pierre Lueders of Canada on the final two runs. Only Langen had a faster time than Hays on the fourth run, but Annen and brakeman Beat Hefti broke the track start record with a time of 4.79 seconds and held off the Americans.

"I was pretty shocked that Annen came back the way he did," Hays said. "When I see him, I'm going to shake his hand and tell him he deserves a medal because he does. Hopefully, I learned something. I just didn't get the job done."

Langen finished the four runs in 3 minutes, 10.11 seconds, .09 ahead of Reich. Reich had a time of 3:10.20, and Annen finished in 3:10.62.

Drama built as the day wore on and the capacity crowd of 15,000 waited anxiously. Langen trailed Reich by .01 entering the third run, and when Reich and brakeman Steve Anderhub set a track record, Langen's goal of reaching gold in his final Olympics seemed to be fading.

The Germans then rallied with a track record of their own, and the top two sleds entered the final run in a dead heat.

Reich, distraught after finishing fourth at Nagano four years ago, had a time of 42.73 on the final run, and that seemed safe as Langen and brakeman Markus Zimmermann roared toward the finish line trailing.

Langen, a small American flag painted on back of his jet black helmet and a German flag on the front, then displayed the skills that have made him the best driver in the world.

Despite the slowest starts of top six sleds and a substitute partner - his normal brakeman, 6-foot-7, 250-pound Marco Jacobs injured a hamstring while training in Arizona last month - Langen and Zimmermann made up time at the bottom of the 16-turn course to finally get Olympic gold in the two-man. Langen won the two-man bronze in 1994 and 1992.

"In curves six to 11, the ride was superb," said Langen, the only driver to win gold in the two-man and four-man at the World Championships and European Championships in the same year (1996). "In curve 11, I thought, 'Oh my gosh, we might be able to make it,' and we did."

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