Three German women are chasing the world championship title in two-man bobsleigh: At the World Championships in St. Moritz, Lisa Buckwitz is just in the lead after two out of four runs, the decision on Saturday (from 9 a.m.) promises a close three-way battle with Kim Kalicki and Olympic champion Laura Nolte. Kalicki is only five hundredths of a second behind Buckwitz, favorite Nolte is surprisingly only third – but only 14 hundredths behind the leaders.
“I didn’t think it would work like this,” said Buckwitz, “and I still have room for improvement.” Favorite Kaillie Humphries (USA) also did well in the competition but will need to catch up on day two for the podium. The three-time Olympic champion is fourth, almost three tenths are missing on Buckwitz.
Buckwitz, Kalicki, Nolte and Humphries shared all World Cup victories in the season so far, so the expectations were correspondingly high. Buckwitz, however, was something of the underdog in this quartet – the other pilots have been much more consistent so far.
In St. Moritz, Buckwitz was already convincing in the monobob on the first weekend of the World Championships, finishing third behind Nolte and Humphries. It was her first World Cup medal as a pilot, at the 2018 Winter Games she had been successful as a brakewoman.
On Friday she made strong starts with Kira Lipperheide and was the fastest through the natural ice rink in the first run despite a few barriers. Kalicki and brakewoman Leonie Fiebig started even stronger and reduced the gap in the second run, Nolte and Neele Schuten also made up time on Buckwitz in the second run. Maureen Zimmer and Lauryn Siebert are sixth at half-time.