Winter Games in Beijing: Laura Nolte on course to medal in Monobo

Laura Nolte in action from Germany. Photo: Robert Michael/dpa-Zentralbild/dpa

The debut in the women’s monobob isn’t necessarily an advertisement for the sport. Only exceptional pilots were convinced of Humphreys’ steering cables. But a German medal is likely.

Yanqing – The German Gold Series in the Ice Channel is in danger of breaking. At the Olympic premiere in Monoboob, Laura Nolte was third and on course for a medal. But she is already 1.22 seconds behind world champion Kelly Humphries of America, who is leading.

Oberhof’s two-man bobsled Olympic champion Mariama Zamanka made several mistakes in both the first and second runs and is only 17th, 3.69 seconds behind the leader. “Unfortunately, my runs were disastrous, second was not better, annoyingly, I knew I had done better in training,” said Monoboob European champion Jamanka, who also won a test race at the track in October.

So only Nolte has a chance to win a medal. The new discipline saw the 2016 Youth Olympic champions ease the pressure of a German winning streak across the Ice Channel with six gold medals ahead of two final runs on Monday. “You are only happy for the sake of others, but you know that now all eyes are on you, for we will probably be the first discipline where this is not so,” said Nolte and classified the new discipline: “Neither Mariama nor That’s why I won the World Cup in Monoboob this season.”

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Still, the goal is the first medal in the premiership. “If I get it under control, I can attack from the front again,” Nolte insisted. Head coach René Spice praised his Olympic debut and wanted to work intensely on the driving line again via video. The fact that Humphreys “makes the fewest mistakes really should come as no surprise to anyone,” said extraordinary master at steering cables K Jamanka, who won Olympic victories in 2010 and 2014 for Canada and is now a US citizen. Huh. In second place is Canada’s Christine De Bruyne, who is 1.04 seconds ahead of Humphries.

Nolte explained why the standard sled provided by the world federation IBSF, on which only runners can operate, is so difficult to master. “If the curve entry is just a millimeter wrong, mono breaks down very quickly,” Nolte insists. Many pilots criticize the choice of the new discipline and prefer to have a four-man bobsled in a team, as the team spirit of bobsled cannot be retained in a mono sled.