Winter Olympics 2022 - Medal chances over for GB in two-woman bobsleigh, as Germany’s Nolte leads after two heats

Published 18/02/2022 at 14:30 GMT

Britain's Mica McNeill and Montell Douglas were unable to challenge the top contenders in the two-woman bobsleigh at the Winter Olympics in Beijing, as the Germans once again took control at the halfway stage. Laura Nolte has a 0.50-second lead going into the second day of competition, with reigning champion Mariama Jamanka second ahead of the USA's Elana Meyers Taylor.

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Team GB’s Mica McNeill and Montell Douglas will not challenge for medals in the two-woman bobsleigh at the Winter Olympics in Beijing, after they finished a disappointing opening day 19th in the standings, with Germany again on course to take gold.

Pilot Laura Nolte and Deborah Levi will take a 0.50-second lead over fellow German Mariama Jamanka going into day two, with Elana Meyers Taylor of the USA sitting third, 0.74 seconds off top spot.

McNeill and Douglas - who is back in Beijing 14 years after competing in China as a sprinter at the 2008 Olympics - went into the competition looking in good form, after a second-place finish at a World Cup in Sigulda last month. They combined with decent times during the training runs, but finished the opening day second from bottom of the standings.

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Germany’s world bronze medallist Nolte, with five World Cup victories this season, lay down an early marker in the first heat with a run of 1:01.04 - a track record. It proved to be a difficult time to topple, with world champion and three-time Olympic gold medallist Humphries sitting second but 0.37 seconds behind after her run.

Her US team-mate Meyers Taylor, chasing her first Olympic gold, ate into the German sled’s lead to go above Humphries and 0.22 seconds back from Nolte.

Next up was reigning champion Jamanka, competing with Tokyo 2020 sprinter Alexandra Burghardt. A mistake early on cost her a chance to take the lead but she recovered to cross the line just 0.06 seconds back from her German team-mate Nolte.

McNeill had to wait a long time to get on the course as the third from last team to go, but they made a slower than expected start. As the run went on, pace was being lost and they crossed the line over a second behind Nolte in a disappointing 17th, a long way off the podium places. They would fade to finish heat one second from bottom of the standings.

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Nolte led from Jamanka, Meyers Taylor and Humphries going into the second heat.

Running in the reverse order, McNeill and Douglas would go early in the second heat, but they were not able to set a quicker time than their first effort.

Canada’s Christine de Bruin, who claimed bronze in the monobob, was top of the leaderboard by 0.17 seconds with three sleds to go, with Humphries going slower on her second run.

Meyers Taylor began rapidly for her second run to go up by almost four-hundredths of a second in the opening section and that advantage kept improving. She lost a bit of time at the end of the course but secured a place in the top three going into day two by taking a 0.42 second lead.

It was now down to which of the Germans would lead after the opening day. Jamanka was slowly eating into the American lead as she rattled down the course and crossed the line 0.24 seconds ahead of them, laying down a big challenge to Nolte.

Her fellow German, who won the test event in October, began brilliantly again and kept getting quicker as she went down the circuit. Nolte drove expertly to take a 0.50-second lead going into the third heat.

The second two runs take place from 1200 GMT on Saturday.

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