Kaillie Humphries takes silver, bronze for Elana Meyers Taylor

Innsbruck (RWH) World Championship gold for the European Champion: at the BMW IBSF World Championships 2016 in Innsbruck (AUT), bobsleigh pilot Anja Schneiderheinze of Germany has collected her first World Championship title in the driving seat. Just one week after her European title and almost a year after silver in the Winterberg World Championships, the 37-year-old and her 20-year-old brakewoman Annika Drazek returned the fastest times in three of the four runs down the Olympic ice track in Innsbruck and set a new track record of 52.94 seconds in the first heat. Their victory gives Germany its first World Championship gold in the women’s bobsleigh since 2011, when Cathleen Martini/Romy Logsch won on the Königssee track. And Martini was one of the first people to congratulate the winning duo today – after the other medal winners.
Olympic Champion Kaillie Humphries of Canada and her brakewoman Melissa Lotholz were 0.33 seconds behind the leaders and took silver. Bronze went to defending World Champion Elana Meyers Taylor/Lauren Gibbs (0.49 seconds behind), whose win last year gave the USA its first ever gold in the women’s bobsleigh World Championships.
Junior World Champion Stephanie Schneider, who came third in the 2015 World Championships pushing Cathleen Martini, was fourth with Lisa Marie Buckwitz (1.01 seconds back) in her first World Championship at the helm of a bobsleigh.
Local stars Christina Hengster/Sanne Dekker of Austria, who crashed during the first run in Innsbruck, moved up three places in the following three heats and finished sixth. ©RWH2015-2016

Quotes

Anja Schneiderheinze (GER, 2015 and 2016 European Champion, second in 2015 World Championships)
“World Champion! It’s amazing, we’re really the best in the world in our sport at the moment. Sometimes the timing is just perfect.”

Kaillie Humphries (CAN, 2010 and 2014 Olympic Champion, 2012 and 2013 World Champion)
“The start definitely made the difference. We have some work to do, but I’m happy with our performance and with the silver medal.”

Elana Meyers Taylor (USA, 2014 Olympic silver medallist, 2015 World Champion, overall winner of 2014/2015 World Cup)
“To have a medal after this season – we’re super happy. Anja was hard to compete against.”