Status: 01/21/2023 12:21 p.m
Laura Nolte celebrates a successful World Championship dress rehearsal and wins the European title in monobob for the first time. Kim Kalicki can also look forward to a medal. The victory in Altenberg goes to the American Kaillie Humphries.
A week before the start of the World Championships in St. Moritz, Laura Nolte once again proved her strong form. At the Monobob World Cup in Altenberg, which is being held at the same time as the European Championship, the 24-year-old from BSC Winterberg finished second. Since only European starters are included in the European Championship ranking, she was still able to celebrate the title.
The two-man bobsleigh Olympic champion was only beaten by Kaillie Humphries (2:00.61 minutes) on Saturday (January 21, 2023). After two runs, she was a good half a second behind the American, who had already won the competition in Altenberg last week. Third was the Australian Breeana Walker (+1.28 sec.).
Nolte strong, Humphries stronger
In the fight for the European Championship medals, Nolte positioned himself after the first run with a concentrated drive. She was 0.46 seconds behind Humphries in second place at the time. In the second round she was able to shine with a spotless performance and put pressure on the front again. However, Humphries did not let this deter him and drove her lead safely to the finish.
“I’m very happy because the first run wasn’t good at all, very different from last week and in training,” said Nolte. “In the second run I showed that it’s possible. It gives me a good feeling going into the World Cup.”
Nolte misses third win in monobob
Nolte had already triumphed in the monobob this season in Lake Placid and on her home track in Winterberg. The 24-year-old Olympic bobsleigh champion proved last week that she also likes the demanding ice track in Altenberg, when she set a new track record and was once again only beaten by Humphries.
Kalicki takes bronze and is annoyed
Kim Kalicki was just under a second behind Humphries after the first round. In the second run, the woman from Wiesbaden was able to improve slightly by eleven hundredths, but it wasn’t enough to make it onto the podium. In the end, the 25-year-old finished seventh.
“My two rides were really bad. I also had problems with the fog and my visor on my helmet,” Kalicki quarreled afterwards. Nevertheless, she was allowed to console herself with EM bronze. Silver went to Romania’s Andreea Grecu, who finished the race in sixth place.
Buckwitz unlucky
Lisa Buckwitz, on the other hand, experienced a competition to forget. Although the Olympic champion in 2-man bobsleigh from 2018 started the first run with the best time of all 15 pilots (6.1 seconds), she then came out of a curve unclean and fell. The Berliner, who started for the BRC Thuringia, did not take part in the second run.
Source: sportschau.de