Laura Nolte makes it three podium finishes out of three World Cup races, Kaillie Humphries takes third
Innsbruck (RWH): First victory of the season for the defending World Cup title holder: The Olympic and World Champion in the 2-woman bobsleigh Mariama Jamanka has celebrated her first win of the BMW IBSF World Cup season in Innsbruck (AUT). Racing with the brake athlete Annika Drazek, Jamanka finished the two heats with a 0.19-second lead over her team-mate Laura Nolte (GER). The victory marked Mariama Jamanka’s fifth win in the BMW IBSF World Cup.
In second place, the Youth Olympic Champion Laura Nolte (GER) made it three podium finishes out of three World Cup races, competing for the first time with brake athlete Erline Nolte – coincidentally no relation of pilot Laura.
Third place in Innsbruck went to the 2010 and 2014 Olympic Champion Kaillie Humphries (USA), racing with Sylvia Hoffmann.
Mingming Huai/JiaJia Huang of future Olympic hosts China celebrated their best World Cup result to date in ninth place.
Former brake athletes Cynthia Appiah and Melissa Lotholz of Canada made their World Cup debuts as pilots in Innsbruck and finished in 10th and 15th respectively. In 2016 and 2017, Melissa Lotholz raced with Kaillie Humphries (who was competing for Canada at the time) when she won her two World Championship silver medals. In fourth place, their team mate Christine de Bruin competing with Kristen Bujnowski only just missed out on the World Cup podium in Innsbruck.
The race to the top of the overall standings in the 2019/2020 BMW IBSF World Cup remains exceptionally tight. With her bronze medal in Innsbruck, Kaillie Humphries (USA, 1034 points) only just defended her lead ahead of Stephanie Schneider (GER, 1011), who finished fifth in Innsbruck. Mariama Jamanka (GER, 995) is continuing to catch up in third place overall.
Further information, the World Cup results and the latest overall standings are available at ibsf.org. ©RWH2020
