Annen Holds Off Nicoll For St. Moritz EC Gold

From St. Moritz, SUI

(January 18, 2024) – After a successful weekend of racing in St. Moritz for the IBSF World Cup, the Europe Cup took to the ice less than a week later with the seventh race of the women’s monobob season.

In the race, Swiss pilot Debora Annen defended home ice as she held off a charge by Great Britain’s Adele Nicoll and won gold.

Annen set the quick time of the first heat, .15 ahead of Poland’s Linda Weiszewski and .17 ahead of Germany’s Charlotte Candrix, with Nicoll in fourth .34 back.

The big move in the second heat came from the United States’ Lauren Brzozowski, who took her second crack at St. Moritz after racing in the previous week’s World Cup event. Brzozowski’s push was the second quickest of the heat, and her slide wound up as the quickest of the race. That was enough to hold the lead until Nicoll put down a slide that was nearly as quick as Brzozowski’s to take the top spot.

Nicoll held her spot as both Candrix and Weiszewski took their second runs, with Candrix finishing just behind her and Weiszewski filing in behind Brzozowski in what would eventually be fifth.

That only left Annen, who was looking for her first career Europe Cup gold medal. Annen’s second push matched her first, and while her second effort wasn’t as quick as Nicoll’s, it was still good enough to hold off the Brit and win gold with a margin of victory of just .13

Annen’s gold was not just the first of her career, but her first ever monobob medal. Nicoll’s silver was her best ever finish as a pilot and first medal in the monobob discipline.

Candrix held onto third over Brzozowski by .14 for her second medal in three monobob races.

Brzozowski took a fourth place finish for her best ever finish in Europe. Her previous two starts were in Junior World Championships where she finished seventh and ninth.

Poland’s Weiszewski continued her best season to date with a fifth place effort, only .01 behind Slovakia’s Viktoria Cernanska, who rounded out the top six.

The United States placed two women in the top ten, with Sylvia Hoffman taking tenth place, up from 11th in her first heat. Her second start time of 5.81 was the quickest of the race over anyone else by over a tenth. Teammate Riley Tejcek tied with Australia’s Sarah Blizzard for 11th.

Great Britain’s Nikki McSweeney finished 15th, and while she didn’t move up in the second heat her second run was over a second faster thna her first.

Angelina Beck of Lichtenstein made her Europe Cup debut and finished 16th.

With one race remaining in the IBSF Europe Cup monobob calendar, Belgium’s Kelly van Petegem leads Debora Annen by 38 points, Charlotte Candrix is third, 82 points out of the lead and 44 behind Annen. Despite missing two races, Maureen Zimmer sits fourth, with Czechian Patricia Tajcnarova in fifth.

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