American bobsledder Humphries leads title race at Beijing 2022

YANQING, Beijing, Feb. 13 (Xinhua) -- Kaillie Humphries of the United States led the women's monobob race after two runs at the Beijing 2022 Olympic Winter Games here on Sunday.

Humphries, a two-time Olympic champion, set the track record of 1 minute and 4.44 seconds, on her first run. Humphries was followed by Christine De Bruin 1.04 seconds behind, and German rising star Laura Nolte in third.

Elana Meyers Taylor, the event overall winner of the 2021/22 World Series season, sits fourth with two heats remaining on the schedule.

"I was pretty satisfied with my first run, I had a few mistakes, but I knew everyone will make mistakes. I thought okay, maybe I can fix the mistakes for the second run. But unfortunately, I didn't," said Nolte.

Germany have pocketed six golds at the Yanqing National Sliding Centre so far. However, Nolte told Xinhua that she may not be the seventh German gold medalist in the venue at Beijing 2022.

"I think the gold is very much far right now, [the gap] is over one second, we will check it again tomorrow," The 23-year-old said.

Huai Mingming, 26, ranked fifth of 20 athletes, and is the first Chinese women bobsledder to compete on the Olympic stage.

"I am nervous as a debutant at the Winter Olympics. What's more, I made some mistakes on the second run, I didn't get ideal results today," Huai said.

The last two runs of the women's monobob event will take place on Monday.