Disappointing and dramatic start to the World Cup for the German monobob pilots. Laura Nolte and Lisa-Marie Buckwitz failed at the Bobsleigh World Cup in Whistler. A Canadian won.
Two-man bobsleigh Olympic champion Laura Nolte (Winterberg) dramatically missed out on a top place at the premiere of the monobob world cup in Whistler (Canada) after a fall in the second run. After the first run, Nolte was just in the lead with 55.40 seconds and was the last to start in the second run, but lost control in a corner and ended up seventh, 2.390 seconds behind.
Ribi benefits from Nolte’s mistake
After two heats, local hero Bianca Ribi secured victory in Whistler, Canada. With a total time of 1:50.89 minutes (55.41 seconds/55.48 seconds), she was 0.27 seconds faster than her teammate Cynthia Appiah. The American Kaillie Humphries (+ 0.29 seconds) ended up in third place out of nine starters.
Best German was Kim Kalicki (Wiesbaden) in fifth place, Lisa-Marie Buckwitz (Oberhof) took ninth and last place. Buckwitz also got a completely unsuccessful second run (58.52) and missed a possible better placement.
World Cup races replace “World Series”.
There had already been a monobob competition at the 2021 World Championships and even at the 2022 Olympics, but World Cups were not held for a long time. Instead, the single sleds have been on the road in a separate, so-called world series in recent winters.
The next Monobob World Cup will be held in Park City (USA) next Friday (December 2nd, 2022, 9:30 a.m. CEST).