Buckwitz/Lipperheide take silver ahead of Humphries/Love with bronze
St. Moritz (RWH) Kim Kalicki/Leonie Fiebig are the 2023 World Champions in 2-woman bobsleigh. At the BMW IBSF World Championships St. Moritz-Celerina (SUI) the Germans decided the duel for gold over four race runs in their favor. Lisa Buckwitz/Kira Lipperheide (GER), the leaders after the first day of the World Championships, dropped back to second place in the third race run and came within 0.05 seconds in the final. In the end Buckwitz/Lipperheide won World Cup silver in St. Moritz.
Defending World Champion Kaillie Humphries of the USA took bronze with push athlete Kaysha Love on the Olympia Bobrun St. Moritz-Celerina. For Humphries, Olympic Champion in 2010 and 2014 and four-time World Champion, it was the seventh World Championship medal in 2-woman bobsleigh.
Olympic champion Laura Nolte (GER) and Neele Schuten, who started in third in the intermediate ranking into the second World Championships day, crashed in the third race run after the Horseshoe curve. The European Champions did not reach the finish line after that.
Local heroes Melanie Hasler/Nadja Pasternack, European Championship runners-up in 2023, narrowly missed the first World Championship medal for Swiss bobsledders in more than 20 years in fourth place. In 2001, Francoise Burdet/Katharina Sutter (SUI) had won the World Championship title in Calgary (CAN). The second Swiss duo Martina Fontanive/Mara Morell finished seventh in St. Moritz.
Margot Boch/Carla Senechal from France, U23 World Champions of 2021, celebrated their best World Championships result so far in St. Moritz in fifth place.
For more detailed information including athlete profiles and results please visit ibsf.org. Photos for editorial use can be found at Flickr. ©RWH2023
Kim Kalicki (GER, World Champion 2023, European Champion 2022).
"The last weeks were exhausting, but we managed it well now. Before the last run it was really tight, but I thought to myself, Kim, just ski down normally now, you can do it."
Lisa Buckwitz (GER, World Cup silver 2023, winner BMW IBSF World Cup in Altenberg 2023).
"Even if it was close in the end: a super race, that was fun in any case. In the second run I had a mistake at the horseshoe, there I lost time, otherwise it might have ended differently again. I'm totally happy with silver."
Kaillie Humphries (USA, 2023 World Cup bronze medalist, 2010 and 2014 Olympic champion, four-time world champion)
"The second World Cup day was better than the first definitely. We were also faster at the start today. It's a good feeling to come out of the World Championships with a medal - it also gives Kaysha motivation for the next few years when she will be competing as a pilot herself."
Photos: IBSF / Viesturs Lacis
