From Igls, AUT
(Jan. 10, 2019) – Kim Kalicki has been piloting women’s bobsleds in the European Cup as far back as November of 2015. In that time, the German pilot has rarely found herself outside of the top five, and usually is somewhere in contention of a win. Despite that, until today she did not have an EC gold medal to her name.
Kalicki’s fortunes changed in a tight race between herself and teammate Laura Nolte. Nolte, who herself was a first time winner this season, kept the race close in both heats, but Kalicki and brakewoman Kira Lipperheide were quicker at every timing line on their way to a .24 second victory over Nolte to give Kalicki her first career gold.
Breeana Walker of Austrlia finished third for her second career European Cup bronze medal.
Russia’s Alena Osipenko finished fourth, ahead of Anne Lobenstein of Germany and China’s Mingming Huai. The sixth place finish was a career-best for Huai in the European Cup.
With two races to go in the women’s bobsled portion of the European Cup, Laura Nolte holds a substantial 98 point advantage over Alena Osipenko. Osipenko has yet to beat Nolte this season, and will need the German to falter mightily in the final two races in Igls and Sigulda to have a chance at a European Cup title.
Results:
| Pos | Name | Nation | Start 1 | Start 2 | Run 1 | Run 2 | Total |
| 1 | Kalicki / Lipperheide | GER | 5.54 | 5.56 | 53.98 | 53.76 | 1:47.74 |
| 2 | Nolte / Levi | GER | 5.61 | 5.56 | 54.10 | 53.88 | 1:47.98 |
| 3 | Walker / Scroop | AUS | 5.71 | 5.73 | 54.53 | 54.38 | 1:48.91 |
| 4 | Osipenko / Proshkina | RUS | 5.78 | 5.78 | 54.71 | 54.65 | 1:49.36 |
| 5 | Lobenstein / Dossow | GER | 5.82 | 5.81 | 54.89 | 54.67 | 1:49.56 |
| 6 | Huai / Lu | CHN | 5.82 | 5.83 | 54.87 | 54.76 | 1:49.62 |
| 7 | Ying / Huang | CHN | 5.82 | 5.82 | 54.94 | 54.69 | 1:49.63 |
| 8 | Rebsamen / Hottinger | SUI | 6.12 | 6.07 | 55.25 | 54.98 | 1:50.23 |
| 9 | Timirzyanova / Shafikova | RUS | 5.94 | 5.93 | 55.27 | 55.03 | 1:50.30 |
| 10 | Boch / Senechal | FRA | 5.95 | 5.84 | 55.55 | 54.91 | 1:50.54 |
| 11 | Vicenzino / Cattaneo | ITA | 5.83 | 5.77 | 55.56 | 55.98 | 1:50.54 |
| 12 | Hasler / Naef | SUI | 5.88 | 5.79 | 55.62 | 55.14 | 1:50.76 |
| 13 | Makarova / Sadlovskaia | RUS | 6.43 | 6.39 | 56.17 | 56.04 | 1:52.21 |
| 14 | Andreutti / Chenet | ITA | 6.21 | 6.17 | 56.77 | 55.30 | 1:62.70 |
| DNF | Shabalina / Iokst | RUS | 5.78 | DNF |
