Schellmoser, Nydegger, Popescu and Gisler in the lead
Lillehammer (RWH) With the first races of OMEGA Youth Monobob & Skeleton Series, the qualification phase for the Winter Youth Olympic Games (YOG) 2022 kicked-off. In Lillehammer (NOR) the youngest athletes of the International Bobsleigh & Skeleton Federation IBSF competed in the first two of eight qualification races.
In the Youth Skeleton races, a total of 40 young athletes – 22 women and 18 men – from 15 nations competed in Lillehammer. After the first two races, two times winner Josefa Schellmoser (GER) leads in front of Russian Anastasia Tsyganova and Zhao Dan from China. Lukas
Nydegger, who leads the overall standings ahead of Elvis Weinbergs (LAT) and
Dmitry Knysh, won both men's races.
In Youth Monobob, 18 women and 25 men from 15 countries competed in the first races of the OMEGA Youth Series in Lillehammer. In the women's category, Romanian Georgeta Popescu is currently ahead of Viktoria Cernanska (SVK). Both won one of the races in Lillehammer. Celine Harms from Germany is currently on third place. In Men’s Monobob, Swiss Fabian Gisler took the lead with ranking second and first in Lillehammer. Romania's
Andrej Nica is second ahead of Alexander Czudaj (GER).
The OMEGA Youth Qualification Series includes eight races on four different tracks, two each in Europe (Lillehammer/NOR and Königssee/GER) as well as North America (Lake Placid and Park City in the USA). The four best results from these eight races achieved by athletes will form the IBSF Youth Ranking list from which the YOG quota spots per nation are determined. In Lausanne 2020 (9 to 22 January 2020), 40 Skeleton and 36 Monobob athletes are due to compete, with gender equality in both sports.
The next races of OMEGA Youth series are scheduled for 7 – 9 November in Königssee (GER).
>> Schedule OMEGA IBSF Youth Series
>> YOG-Qualification Monobob
Photos: IBSF/NABSF
