From Altenberg, GER
Feb. 21, 2020 – After two heats of the IBSF World Championships Kaillie Humphries found herself in familiar territory: Atop the leaderboard in Altenberg.
The American slider had won her last three starts on the German track, and she set both the fast start times and fast down times in both heats on Friday to give herself a .21 advantage over Kim Kalicki going into the overnight break.
While nobody appeared to have a “flawless” first run, Humphries carried a slight advantage over a myriad of German women going into the second run. On that second rum Humphries easily had the best drive on her way to an overnight lead.
Kim Kalicki sits behind Humphries but well ahead of her German teammates. Kalicki had started the season off in Germany’s World Cup program, but was bumped out by Laura Nolte during the Christmas break team trials, but now finds herself as the top German going into Saturday’s final two runs.
World Cup champion Stephanie Schneider will enter the second day of sliding in third, a tenth of a second ahead of her Olympic champion teammate Mariama Jamanka. Jamanka picked up three places after setting the third fastest time of the second heat.
Canada’s Chrsitine de Bruin and Great Britain’s Mica McNeill round out the top six after two runs.
Altenberg was its generally difficult self over the first two heats of the World Championships. The first heat saw two hard crashes, with Tania Vicenzino and Andreea Grecu both flipping their sleds all the way over. German website Bild.de has reported that both women, as well as Grecu’s brakewoman Ioana Gheorge have been taken to a local hospital for observation.
In the second heat there was more crashing. First Giada Andreutti went over, losing brakewoman Silva Taini in the process to lead to a disqualification. Finally, Laura Nolte crashed, and while she finished her run in the sled she will not start the third heat on Saturday.
The women’s bobsled portion of the IBSF World Championships will continue on Saturday, February 22 at 9:30 AM eastern time.
Results After 2 Runs:
| Pos | Names | Nation | Bib | Start 1 | Start 2 | Run 1 | Run 2 | Total |
| 1 | Humphries / Gibbs | USA | 5 | 5.63 | 5.62 | 56.47 | 56.33 | 1:52.80 |
| 2 | Kalicki / Lipperheide | GER | 18 | 5.66 | 5.67 | 56.56 | 56.45 | 1:53.01 |
| 3 | Schneider / Fiebig | GER | 4 | 5.63 | 5.62 | 56.50 | 56.84 | 1:53.34 |
| 4 | Jamanka / Drazek | GER | 6 | 5.66 | 5.64 | 56.86 | 56.58 | 1:53.44 |
| 5 | de Bruin / Bujnowski | CAN | 7 | 5.72 | 5.73 | 56.60 | 56.87 | 1:53.47 |
| 6 | McNeill / Douglas | GBR | 15 | 5.84 | 5.87 | 56.83 | 56.99 | 1:53.82 |
| 7 | Sergeeva / Mamedova | RUS | 8 | 5.73 | 5.73 | 56.80 | 57.09 | 1:53.89 |
| 8 | Beierl / Onasanya | AUT | 10 | 5.72 | 5.81 | 57.00 | 57.04 | 1:54.04 |
| 9 | Fontanive / Pasternack | SUI | 11 | 5.78 | 5.74 | 57.20 | 56.90 | 1:54.10 |
| 10 | Ying / Du | CHN | 1 | 5.80 | 5.83 | 57.07 | 57.09 | 1:54.16 |
| 11 | Vannieuwenhuyse / van Petegem | 2BEL | 13 | 5.96 | 5.97 | 57.16 | 57.09 | 1:54.25 |
| 12 | Huai / Lu | CHN | 14 | 5.79 | 5.78 | 57.29 | 57.01 | 1:54.30 |
| 13 | Chernykh / Parfenova | RUS | 2 | 5.83 | 5.87 | 57.50 | 57.22 | 1:54.72 |
| 14 | Walker / Preiska | AUS | 17 | 5.82 | 5.82 | 57.68 | 57.96 | 1:55.64 |
| 15 | Hasler / Naef | SUI | 16 | 5.87 | 5.88 | 57.71 | 58.15 | 1:55.86 |
| 16 | Smolarek / Byczkowska | POL | 20 | 6.35 | 6.43 | 59.35 | 58.65 | 1:58.00 |
| 17 | Nolte / Strack | GER | 9 | 5.66 | 5.72 | 57.04 | 65.52 | 2:02.56 |
| DSQ | Andreutti / Taini | ITA | 19 | 6.06 | 6.08 | 58.71 | DSQ | DSQ |
| DNS | Vicenzino / Tavella | ITA | 3 | 5.94 | 61.28 | DNS | ||
| DNS | Grecu / Gheorghe | ROU | 12 | 5.75 | 62.26 | DNS |
