Germany’s Laura Nolte edges US rival Kaysha Love to win monobob Olympics test event

CORTINA D’AMPEZZO, Italy (AP) – Germany’s Laura Nolte edged American rival Kaysha Love to win the monobob test event on the new track for the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics on Saturday.

Nolte, the reigning Olympic and world champion in two-woman, finished 0.15 seconds ahead of Love, the world champion in monobob, an event which features only one competitor per sled.

On a big day for bobsled’s super power, Germany also won a two-man race and swept the podium with Johannes Lochner, Francesco Friedrich (+0.34) and Adam Ammour (+0.60) finishing 1-2-3.

It was Lochner’s 50th World Cup podium in two-man.

Love, a former sprinter at UNLV, had the fastest starting times in both runs. But Nolte had the fastest run of the day at 59.67 seconds in her second trip down, moving her up from third after the opening descent.

“Winning on the Olympic track gives you a lot of confidence,” Nolte said. “I’m very, very happy with my start times, that I’m so close to the top starters now. That’s how you can win a race.

“With the runs, I am not that happy,” Nolte added. “To be honest, I had much better runs in training, especially the upper part from corner one to five. I always nailed it in training but today it somehow didn’t work that well. The ice was very hard.”

With Bree Walker of Australia finishing third, 0.16 behind, athletes from three different continents filled the podium for the race, which was also the opening World Cup event of the season.

Kaillie Humphries Armbruster, the 40-year-old defending Olympic champion in monobob, placed fourth, 0.26 back.

First-run leader Melanie Hasler of Switzerland finished seventh.

Two-woman and four-man events are scheduled for Sunday.

It’s the first weekend of racing on the completely rebuilt Eugenio Monti track, which will be used for the Feb. 6-22 Olympics.