MORITZ, Switzerland — Germany has captured the first two bobsled gold medals of 2023 world championships, with Laura Nolte driving to the win in women´s Monobob race and Johannes Lochner winning the two-man championship.
Kaillie Humphries of the US was second in monobob, the lone US medal so far at the championships that continue in St. Moritz next week, AP reported.
Germany´s Francesco Friedrich drove to second in two-man, ending a run of seven consecutive world championships for him in that event.
He also is the two-time defending Olympic champion in both two-man and four-man.
Germany won gold medals in eight of the nine events at the luge world championships that concluded in Oberhof, Germany.
The doubles sled of Toni Eggert and Sascha Benecken won three world titles over the course of the weekend – men´s doubles, men´s doubles sprint and they were part of Germany´s winning team relay.
Anna Berreiter was a two-time world champion (women´s singles, team relay). The German women´s doubles team of Jessica Degenhardt and Cheyenne Rosenthal also won a pair of world titles (women´s doubles, women´s doubles sprint).
Other winners for Germany included Dajana Eitberger (women´s sprint), Felix Loch (men´s sprint) and Max Langenhan (as part of the team relay).
The other gold medal awarded went to Austria´s Jonas Muller in men´s singles.
The US did not medal at the world championships.
Germany´s Susanne Kreher won the women´s skeleton world championship at St. Moritz, while Britain´s Matt Weston won the men´s race.
Mirela Rahneva of Canada was the lone North American medalist, taking bronze in the women´s event.
Germans Laura Nolte and Johannes Lochner dethroned the reigning Olympic and world champions to open the world bobsled championships in St. Moritz.
Nolte, the Olympic two-woman champion driver, won the four-run monobob by four tenths of a second over American Kaillie Humphries, who won the first world title in the event in 2021 and the first Olympic title in the event in 2022. Another German, Lisa Buckwitz, took bronze.
In the two-man, Lochner became the first driver to beat countryman Francesco Friedrich in an Olympic or world championships event since 2016, ending Friedrich’s record 12-event win streak at global championships.
Friedrich, defeated by 49 hundredths, saw his streak of seven consecutive world two-man titles was also snapped.
Lochner, 32, won his first outright global title after seven Olympic or world silvers, plus a shared four-man gold with Friedrich in 2017.
Americans Steven Holcomb and Steven Langton were the last non-Germans to win a world two-man title in 2012.
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