From Igls, AUT
(December 16, 2023) – The third round of the IBSF World Cup doubled as a women’s monobob double header weekend, with races on both Friday and Saturday for the single-seater sleds.
Lisa Buckwitz came into Saturday’s race already with one win under her belt from Friday, and looked to sweep the weekend. Behind her, Australia’s Breeana Walker, Switzerland’s Melanie Hasler and a threesome of North Americans looked to steal her thunder.
As the medal contenders came to the line in the second heat, American Elana Meyers Taylor went first. The American, in her return to action from a season off to have her second child, was unable to move up the rankings despite a better second run.
Up next was Canada’s Cynthia Appiah, who had a disappointing race on Friday but rallied on Saturday. Her second run was .15 quicker and good enough for a top five, but like Meyers Taylor wasn’t quite good enough to move her up the order.
Then came Kaysha Love. The American, who had won the season opener in her first ever World Cup race, once again had a strong push and a clean slide, .17 faster than her first. She then watched as neither Halser nor Walker could match her combined time.
That put Love in the lead with only Buckwitz to go. The German once again set the quick push of the race, only .01 off of her record start from a season ago. Her drive wasn’t quite as clean as Love’s, but Buckwitz ran out of track before it became an issue to take her second gold medal of the season.
The gold for Buckwitz was the third of her career in monobob, with all three coming in Igls. For Love, the silver was her second medal in three races.
Walker held on for bronze, .09 ahead of Hasler in fourth. Appiah and Meyers Taylor rounded out the top six.
British rookie Adele Nicoll scored her first career World Cup top ten with a ninth place finish, while Canada’s Bianca Ribi moved up from 12th in the first heat to finish 11th.
After three races in women’s monobob, Kaysha Love remains your point leader, 9 ahead of Lisa Buckwitz. Bree Walker sits third, with Melanie Hasler and Elana Meyers Taylor rounding out the top five.
Results:
| Pos | Name | Nation | Bib | Start 1 | Start 2 | Run 1 | Run 2 | Total |
| 1 | Lisa Buckwitz | GER | 10 | 5.79 | 5.78 | 54.67 | 54.75 | 1:49.42 |
| 2 | Kaysha Love | USA | 7 | 5.87 | 5.80 | 54.85 | 54.68 | 1:49.53 |
| 3 | Breeana Walker | AUS | 5 | 5.90 | 5.86 | 54.77 | 54.78 | 1:49.55 |
| 4 | Melanie Hasler | SUI | 11 | 5.88 | 5.89 | 54.80 | 54.84 | 1:49.64 |
| 5 | Cynthia Appiah | CAN | 12 | 5.83 | 5.83 | 54.96 | 54.81 | 1:49.77 |
| 6 | Elana Meyers Taylor | USA | 13 | 5.96 | 5.98 | 54.97 | 54.93 | 1:49.90 |
| 7 | Andreea Grecu | ROU | 8 | 5.88 | 5.88 | 54.98 | 54.97 | 1:49.95 |
| 8 | Laura Nolte | GER | 9 | 6.00 | 6.04 | 55.00 | 55.04 | 1:50.04 |
| 9 | Adele Nicoll | GBR | 2 | 6.02 | 5.98 | 55.18 | 55.17 | 1:50.35 |
| 10 | Qing Ying | CHN | 14 | 5.98 | 5.98 | 55.39 | 55.20 | 1:50.59 |
| 11 | Bianca Ribi | CAN | 6 | 6.10 | 6.07 | 55.35 | 55.28 | 1:50.63 |
| 12 | Margot Boch | FRA | 4 | 6.08 | 6.05 | 55.32 | 55.33 | 1:50.65 |
| 13 | Mingming Huai | CHN | 3 | 6.04 | 6.00 | 55.32 | 55.48 | 1:50.80 |
| 14 | Katrin Beierl | AUT | 16 | 6.08 | 6.07 | 55.47 | 55.35 | 1:50.82 |
| 15 | Linda Weiszewski | POL | 15 | 6.04 | 6.02 | 55.65 | 55.42 | 1:51.07 |
| 16 | Viktoria Cernanska | SVK | 17 | 6.22 | 6.22 | 55.66 | 55.46 | 1:51.12 |
| 17 | Giada Andreutti | ITA | 1 | 6.51 | 6.52 | 56.28 | 56.25 | 1:52.53 |
| 18 | Julia Slupecka | POL | 18 | 6.47 | 6.41 | 56.68 | 56.69 | 1:53.23 |