Stephanie Schneider wins silver ahead of Laura Nolte with bronze
Altenberg (RWH) Kaillie Humphries (USA) is the first Women’s Monobob World Champion in the history of the sport. The discipline was on the programme for the first time at the 2021 BMW IBSF World Championships in Altenberg (GER). Kaillie Humphries, two-time Olympic and four-time World Champion in 2-woman bobsleigh, adds another new title to her collection after also winning 2-woman bobsleigh gold in Altenberg.
Kaillie Humphries, who started the final day in second place after two of the four race runs, took the lead before the last and decisive run with a track record. In the final run, Humphries set another track record (59.47 seconds) and won monobob gold by 0.50 seconds.
World Championships silver in Altenberg went to local hero Stephanie Schneider, the overall World Cup winner in 2020 in 2-woman bobsleigh.
Team-mate Laura Nolte (GER) won monobob bronze. The European and Junior World Champion in the 2-woman bob was 0.80 seconds behind winner Humphries.
By far the fastest at the start was Cynthia Appiah from Canada. With her start record of 5.92 seconds in the final run, she was about two tenths of a second faster than almost all the other athletes. Cynthia Appiah finished fifth in Altenberg behind Olympic Champion Mariama Jamanka in fourth place.
Katrin Beierl from Austria, overall World Cup winner in 2-woman bobsleigh, finished eighth at the BMW IBSF World Championships 2021 in Altenberg.
In 2018, the International Olympic Committee IOC had included women's monobob as a new discipline in the Olympic programme. The first official IBSF race took place in November 2018 in Lillehammer - with Breeana Walker from Australia as the winner. Since the 2020/2021 season, the Women's Monobob World Series has been held at events of all IBSF race series. 21 years after the first World Championships in 2-woman bobsleigh in 2000 in Winterberg (GER), the second discipline for female bobsleigh athletes now celebrated its World Championships premiere. 20 years after the Olympic debut in Salt Lake City (USA) in 2002, the women's monobob will also be an Olympic event at the Winter Games in Beijing in 2022.
For more detailed information including athlete profiles and results please visit ibsf.org. Photos for editorial use can be found at Flickr. ©RWH2021
Photos: IBSF / Viesturs Lacis
