Canada’s Cynthia Appiah raced to a bronze medal in the women’s monobob at the World Cup stop in Altenberg, Germany on Saturday.
The Torontonian clocked an impressive first run of 58.80 seconds to take first place overall and secure a place on the medal podium with the second fastest second run of 59.67 over the daunting 17-corner course.
Appiah’s total time of 1:58.86 was enough to edge Germany’s Lisa Buckwitz by 0.06 seconds for her third monobob medal of the season.
“It feels great to be back on the podium again,” Appiah, who holds the women’s monobob start record of 5.93 at Altenberg, told Bobsleigh Canada Skeleton. “My runs weren’t the best, but it’s a step up from the runs I had last year at the two world championships here, so I’m taking the small wins.”
The 32-year-old Olympian added that it’s important to be alert on the Altenberg circuit from the start to the exit of turn nine.
“You’re driving all the time and you don’t have any breaks,” she said. “When you go straight from Kreisel to the finish, it’s another barrage of turns. It’s different from other European circuits, but I’m always up for a challenge.
The second-year pilot’s first two World Cup podiums, both silvers, came on the bleak 1,413-meter ice chute a year ago.
I’m happy with where things are, but I was hoping my season would be better at this point.– Canadian pilot Cynthia Appiah
“Despite how hard it is to go down, I really like the Altenberg track,” said Appiah. “Having a lot of success at this track means a lot to me as it’s known as one of the toughest tracks on the circuit where even seasoned veterans have had problems. It gives me a lot of confidence to keep getting on the podium regardless of how far back I am driving with my consistency.”
Appiah won silver in the season opener in Whistler, BC and followed that up with bronze the following week in Park City, Utah.
“I’m happy with where things are,” she said, “but I was hoping for a better season at this point on the track. But now it’s post-Olympic season and I’m constantly improving in my field. I’ve had to learn not to be so hard on myself and not expect perfection all the time.” .
11 monobob medals in single events
First place went to Canadian-born Kaillie Humphries with a combined time of 1:57.92. The American was second in her first run (58.95) before adding the fastest second run of the day (58.97) for her second World Cup win of the season and her 100th career women’s monobob podium at a major international competition.
WATCH l Appiah glides to monobob bronze in Altenberg:
In the women’s monobob competition at the IBSF World Cup stop in Altenberg, Germany, the 32-year-old soccer player finished third in 1:58.86.
Humphries won 70 medals in two women’s events in her career; 60 World Cups, seven World Championships and three Olympic Games. She won 11 more medals in the monobob, including Olympic gold last year in Beijing, 10 more on the North American Cup circuit and nine medals in the team event.
Laura Nolte led host Germany to the podium with a second place overall time of 1:58.47. Humphries’ margin of victory of 0.55 seconds was the largest in a World Cup monobob race this season.
Humphries scored 225 points for the win, 15 more than Nolte for second place. That gave Humphries 1,070 points on the season, 50 more than Nolte in the overall title race, with three races remaining on the World Cup schedule.
Humphries was 0.15 seconds behind Nolte after the first run. But her second run time of 58.97 beat Nolte by seven-tenths of a second, a huge margin in sliding.
Canadians 9th in 2 men’s event
Winnipeg’s Bianca Ribi finished ninth. The 26-year-old ran 59.88 and 1:00.25 for an overall time of 2:00.13.
WATCH | Full coverage of the second and final leg from Germany:
Watch the second and final round of the women’s monobob competition from the IBSF World Cup stop in Altenberg, Germany.
In the two-man bobsled event, Calgary’s Taylor Austin and Shaq Lawrence-Murray of Scarborough, Ont., were ninth out of 12 teams in 1:51.64.
Last weekend in Winterberg, Germany, they clocked 1:52.66 to place 11th.
German Johannes Lochner won in 1:49.20. Britain’s Brad Hall was second in 1:49.63, followed by Germany’s Francesco Friedrich in 1:50.26.
Lochner, Hall and Friedrich each have four medals from five doubleheader races this season. Lochner leads the two-man standings with 1,067 points, now 31 points behind Friedrich (entering Saturday by just six) and 53 ahead of Hall.
On Sunday, the bobsleigh doubles and quadruple competitions will be held in Altenberg.
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