Laura Nolte celebrated the second win of her career in monobob in Winterberg. Kim Kalicki was third. When Johannes Lochner won, bobsleigh dominator Francesco Friedrich missed the podium.
At the home World Cup in Winterberg on Saturday (January 7th, 2023), the German monobob pilots narrowly missed out on a triple success in the ice channel.
After the first run, Lisa Buckwitz was still on course for the podium behind Melanie Hasler from Switzerland. Olympic champion Laura Nolte, who celebrated her first World Cup victory in Lake Placid, and teammate Kim Kalicki could also hope for a top three place before the final run in fourth and fifth place.
Nolte drives past the competition
In the second run, the places were actually rearranged. Nolte took over the lead with a great ride. The American top pilot Kaillie Humphries couldn’t get past Nolte and ended up in second place, 0.18 seconds behind. An increase was also achieved by Kalicki (+0.19), who, thanks to the stumbling competition, moved up from fifth to third place. Buckwitz, on the other hand, narrowly missed the podium after making small mistakes in fourth place. Hasler, who was leading after the first run, slipped down to seventh place after a weak final run.
After four races and thus halfway through the season, favorite Humphries is still leading the Monobob World Cup, with Nolte in second, closely behind.
Lochner prevails – beaten injured Friedrich
Johannes Lochner won the men’s race. For bobsleigh dominator Francesco Friedrich, on the other hand, it wasn’t enough for a podium finish. “I injured myself during sprint training exactly nine days ago”said Frederick, “Now it’s time to do damage limitation and make sure it doesn’t get worse.” Head coach Rene Spies spoke of one “Torn muscle fibers in the adductor area, that will be a tightrope act, to get through it with a lot of physiotherapy.”
In the two-man bobsleigh, the bobsleigh pilots Friedrich and Lochner are having a close exchange of blows this season. On the North American tour, Friedrich from Öberbärenburger had two successes, while Lochner from Berchtesgaden celebrated his first victory in the two-man sled since December 2020.
At the first World Cup of the young sporting year in Winterberg, Oberbayer Lochner scored his second win of the season with two perfect runs through the ice channel. And he passed the Saxon record world champion in the overall World Cup rankings.
The Swiss Michael Vogt/Sandro Michel finished second. Third place went to the Britons Bradley Hall/Taylor Lawrence because Christoph Hafer/Matthias Sommer, who were still promising second after the first run, lost more time in the final run and only finished fourth.