By David Kirton
YANQING, China (Reuters) -From the night’s first run, Laura Nolte and Deborah Levi made it clear they were not to be caught this Olympics as the pair extended their lead over the several pursuing medallists behind them and soared to another German gold on Saturday.
Rivals needed Nolte, 23, and Levi, 24, to make mistakes for a way back into the race after the Olympic first-timers took a commanding lead on Friday, but they kept their nerve for a total time of 4:03.96 over four runs.
It was Germans giving Germans a run for their money, like so many sliding races this Olympics.
Jamanka Mariama, who took gold in this event four years before, and brakewoman Alexandra Burghardt, were their closest contenders, finishing 0.77 seconds behind.
United States duo Elana Meyers Taylor and Sylvia Hoffman proved themselves the fastest pushers on the track, breaking their own start time record from a night earlier.
But their pace fell on the Yanqing National Sliding Centre’s curves, coming 1.52 seconds behind the leaders for bronze.
It was the fifth Olympic medal for Meyers Taylor, the 37-year-old pilot and most decorated U.S. bobsledder, who has said this would be her last race.
The windswept Yanqing night saw Germany continue its unprecedented sliding medal haul, with the country taking a phenomenal eight of nine available golds.
Two German four-man teams lead the pack going into the finale on Sunday morning.
The U.S.’s Kaillie Humphries took the remaining gold in the Olympics’ first ever monobob on Monday, but the four-time medal winner competed with an injured calf, coming in seventh and 3.08 seconds behind Nolte.
“I just hit a wall and didn’t have it in me these last couple days, and it sucks,” Humphries said.
“It’s not ideal from a performance side. But at the end of the day, I’m human like everybody else, and I’m more disappointed for Kaysha (brakewoman Kaysha Love) and for everybody else that I couldn’t muster it together.”
The 36-year-old said she plans to race in the Milan-Cortina Olympics in four years.
Canada’s Cynthia Appiah and Dawn Richardson Wilson will likely have bruises to show for their race in the morning, after the pair skidded and crashed near the track’s tricky 13th curve.
After the bobsleigh slid for agonising moments along the track, the pair emerged looking mostly unharmed if frustrated.
“I know that crash looked a lot worse than it was,” Appiah said.
“I was more upset that the crash happened than anything. Got a little bit of a shoulder bruise, but all things considered it could have been worse and I’m glad that’s the worst of it.”
They jumped in the bobsleigh for a fourth run, finishing eighth overall.
(Reporting by David Kirton;Editing by Andrew Cawthorne and Toby Davis)
