From St. Moritz, SUI
(January 27, 2023) – Earlier in the day the men’s skeleton race was won by well over a full second. When it was time for the women to take the ice in St. Moritz they put on a show, with a nail-biting finish.
Susanne Kreher was the overnight leader by .39 over Canada’s Mimi Rahneva, with teammate Jane Channell, the Netherlands’ Kimberley Bos was fourth and Tina Hermann fifth, all within .6.
The third run mixed some things up: Kreher continued to lead, but only by .25 over Kimberley Bos, who put down the quickest run of the heat, while Channell, Austria’s Janine Flock, and Rahneva rounded out the top five, all within .7 of the lead.
On the last run Rahneva put down a stellar final effort to move up from fifth into the medals, leapfrogging both Flock and Channell. That final slide would be the third quickest of the final heat.
Up next was Bos, who had won silver behind Australia’s Jackie Narracott a year prior in the final World Cup race before the duo won medals in the Olympics. Bos put down a monster final run, the fastest of the competition to take the lead, well ahead of Rahneva with only Kreher to go.
Then it was Kreher’s turn. The German had never won a gold medal in World Cup action, or even led going into the second heat of a World Cup race. Kreher’s final run was a little bumpy, and likely not what she was looking for in a last trip down. However she was able to clean things up when it mattered, and as she crossed the finish line she found herself as the winner of the World Championships by .01 over Bos.
“I felt on the fourth run that it could be close because I know I wasn’t having the best run,” Kreher said of her final effort. “I’m really happy I could save the last hundredth of a second! I had pretty good runs in training so I thought maybe I could have a top six or something, but that I could win gold is just amazing!”
For Bos, the silver was bittersweet.
“Today was great,” she said. “I did much better than yesterday but I definitely threw it away yesterday. One hundredth is…well it’s one hundredth. But I’m happy with silver today! I figured out the S Curves, I couldn’t get them yesterday. I figured out WHY I couldn’t get them yesterday so I got them today and you see I’m faster than Susanne but it’s just a day too late.”
The next World Championships for the IBSF is in Winterberg, Germany, where Bos has won the last three World Cup events.
Rahvena won bronze, having edged out Janine Flock by just .04. The Canadian, who has two decisive gold medals in St. Moritz World Cup races, may have been looking for gold but was happy with a bronze medal.
Said Rahneva of her World Championships: “A lot of emotions today. A lot of nerves. I think I really wanted this, and wanted the title, and the pressure got a lot. I had to back off and just regroup and just enjoy it. Who knows when we’ll be back here, so it was all about just honing things in, being present and just enjoying St. Moritz. It’s such a wonderful track to slide. To come back from fifth to third then again from fifth to third, it makes for an exciting race and that’s why we love sport so much because you never know what will happen!”
Austria’s Flock finished fourth in just her fourth race back since back surgery. Germany’s Tina Hermann never could quite get in the rhythm of things and was a non-factor in fifth.
Canada’s Jane Chanell had a disappointing second run that knocked her out of the medals and into sixth place.
For the United States, the race was a matter “what could have been” for a pair of sliders. Hallie Clarke, making her first World Championships appearance, finished tenth to lead the way for the Americans and was the only slider who didn’t have some kind of issue on the first run.
Clarke was understandably excited after the race.
“This feels amazing!” said Clarke. “I kind of surprised myself a little bit with my first run yesterday and then I was just trying to hold onto it from there. A top ten feels incredible.”
Kendall Wesenberg finished 13th after a disappointing start to her championships set her back in 22nd. However, three top-13 runs got her back into the mix and she finished 13th.
“I made a call with some runners after training that was a couple of days before the race,” Wesenberg said. “I made a bold call, it didn’t work out so I made adjustments in the second run to keep myself in it a little bit. I was hoping to fight back a little bit today and I’m glad that I was able to do that.”
Like Wesenberg, Kelly Curtis had a first heat issue that put her well back, but she rallied for a 20th place finish.
“I’m impressed with myself about how I was able to regroup and have two better runs today. Hopefully I’ll have an even stronger race in the team race on Sunday!”
Australia’s Jackie Narracott, the previous World Cup winner in St. Moritz, finished the event in 11th. While it wasn’t another medal, it was still a career-best finish.
“Today’s about as far from what I was hoping for as I could of gotten,” she said. “It was still my best World Championships results, so while I wish I hadn’t been skidding into Sunny every time, it was a decent finish.”
Laura Deas was the top British finisher with a ninth place finish. Brogan Crowley finished 18th, while Tabitha Stoecker had a tough third run that kept her from a top 20 finish, as she finished 23rd.
Results:
| Pos | Name | Nation | Bib | Run 1 | Run 2 | Run 3 | Run 4 | Total |
| 1 | Susanne Kreher | GER | 7 | 68.12 | 68.26 | 68.77 | 68.42 | 4:33.57 |
| 2 | Kimberley Bos | NED | 8 | 68.23 | 68.69 | 68.48 | 68.18 | 4:33.58 |
| 3 | Mirela Rahneva | CAN | 9 | 68.57 | 68.20 | 69.08 | 68.56 | 4:34.41 |
| 4 | Janine Flock | AUT | 18 | 68.91 | 68.11 | 68.82 | 68.61 | 4:34.45 |
| 5 | Tina Hermann | GER | 10 | 68.47 | 68.50 | 69.05 | 68.60 | 4:34.62 |
| 6 | Jane Channell | CAN | 3 | 68.52 | 68.36 | 68.81 | 69.07 | 4:34.76 |
| 7 | Jacqueline Lölling | GER | 1 | 68.69 | 68.56 | 69.34 | 68.67 | 4:35.26 |
| 8 | Kim Meylemans | BEL | 30 | 68.78 | 68.99 | 68.94 | 68.77 | 4:35.48 |
| 9 | Laura Deas | GBR | 14 | 69.14 | 68.75 | 69.05 | 69.11 | 4:36.05 |
| 10 | Hallie Clarke | USA | 12 | 68.90 | 69.00 | 69.21 | 69.24 | 4:36.35 |
| 11 | Jaclyn Larracott | AUS | 16 | 68.92 | 68.93 | 69.43 | 69.32 | 4:36.60 |
| 12 | Dan Zhao | CHN | 15 | 69.95 | 68.85 | 69.21 | 68.91 | 4:36.92 |
| 13 | Kendall Wesenberg | USA | 13 | 69.96 | 69.05 | 69.40 | 69.31 | 4:37.72 |
| 14 | Valentina Margaglio | ITA | 20 | 69.20 | 69.33 | 68.51 | 71.03 | 4:38.07 |
| 15 | Hannah Neise | GER | 6 | 69.45 | 69.18 | 69.82 | 69.82 | 4:38.27 |
| 16 | Nicole Silveira | BRA | 2 | 69.55 | 69.35 | 70.20 | 69.41 | 4:38.51 |
| 17 | Anna Fernstädt | CZE | 4 | 69.42 | 69.63 | 70.10 | 69.57 | 4:38.72 |
| 18 | Brogan Crowley | GBR | 11 | 69.88 | 69.30 | 70.12 | 69.49 | 4:38.79 |
| 19 | Kellie Delka | PUR | 24 | 69.35 | 69.52 | 70.27 | 69.87 | 4:39.01 |
| 20 | Kelly Curtis | USA | 5 | 70.23 | 69.63 | 69.81 | 69.82 | 4:39.49 |
| 21 | Yuxi Li | CHN | 19 | 69.72 | 69.66 | 70.35 | 3:29.73 | |
| 22 | Sara Schmied | SUI | 27 | 69.84 | 69.94 | 70.14 | 3:29.92 | |
| 23 | Tabitha Stoecker | GBR | 22 | 69.54 | 69.77 | 71.07 | 3:30.38 | |
| 24 | Darta Zunte | EST | 25 | 69.97 | 70.53 | 70.24 | 3:30.74 | |
| 25 | Anna Saulite | AUT | 26 | 70.05 | 70.72 | 70.51 | 3:31.28 | |
| 26 | Katharina Eigenman | LIE | 23 | 70.56 | 70.71 | 70.71 | 3:31.98 | |
| 27 | Alessia Crippa | ITA | 21 | 70.77 | 70.22 | 71.59 | 3:32.58 | |
| 28 | Laura Vargas | COL | 28 | 71.34 | 72.53 | 71.67 | 3:35.54 | |
| 29 | Ana Torres Quevedo | ESP | 29 | 62.51 | 62.49 | 72.07 | 3:37.07 | |
| 30 | Shannon Galea | MLT | 31 | 72.69 | 72.48 | 72.66 | 3:37.83 | |
| DNS | Katie Tannenbaum | ISV | 32 | 71.89 | 73.18 | DNS | DNS | |
| DNS | Agathe Bessard | FRA | 17 | 70.47 |
