Nadezhda Sergeeva finishes second ahead of Anna Köhler
Sigulda (RWH): The women’s Olympic bobsleigh champion Mariama Jamanka (GER) has started the 2018/2019 winter season with her first ever World Cup win. At the opening race to the BMW IBSF World Cup season in Sigulda (LAT), the German athlete and her brakewoman Annika Drazek pushed the Russian pairing of Nadezhda Sergeeva/Yulia Belomestnykh (0.61 seconds back) into second place. The race also marked the first podium finish for Sergeeva, the runner-up in the 2018 European Championships. Anna Köhler/Lisa Sophie Gericke (GER, 0.82 seconds back) finished in third.
Nadezhda Sergeeva had to relinquish the starting and track records that she set at the IBSF Europe Cup in November 2016. Jamanka/Drazek now have the fastest start time at 4.30 seconds. And the German pairing also hold the track record after undercutting the previous benchmark by almost two seconds with a time of 51.28 seconds on their first run. Overall, nearly all of the athletes managed to break the old track record.
The US duo of Elana Meyers Taylor – the Olympic silver medallist from PyeongChang – and her brakewoman Sylvia Hoffmann were disqualified after the first heat after failing to meet the lower weight limit.
Following the first of eight races in the 2018/2019 BMW IBSF World Cup, the overall standings are led by Mariama Jamanka (GER, 225 points) ahead of Nadezhda Sergeeva (RUS, 210) and Anna Köhler (GER, 200).
Further information, the World Cup results and the latest overall standings are available at ibsf.org. ©RWH2018
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