Nicoll & Placide 11th in Women's Bobsleigh
Adelé Nicoll and Kya Placide finished 11th in the Women’s Bobsleigh in their first World Championships on Saturday afternoon.
The Welsh pair clocked a combined time of 3 minutes 46.58 seconds over the four-run race in Winterberg, Germany.
Nicoll and Placide sat seventh overnight after an outstanding first day’s competition but they dropped four spots in the final run as sleds seven-11 were separated by just a few hundredths of a second after Run 3.
Maintaining their position from the first day would have seen them register the country’s best women’s result since Paula Walker and Gillian Cooke finished in the same spot in Lake Placid in 2012 but placing in the top half of a 24-strong field is a remarkable achievement considering the pair’s inexperience.
Nicoll, who only switched from push athlete to pilot after the Beijing Olympics, made her World Cup debut as a driver in this discipline as recently as late January and had just two top-tier appearances to her name before stepping on the start line yesterday.
Placide is even newer to the GB set up after earning selection this summer but the 19-year-old helped Nicoll to the ninth fastest starts in every heat as she showed her potential on the world stage.
The result comes a week after Nicoll, who is the reigning, back-to-back British Shot Putt Champion, finished ninth in the monobob event as she targets an Olympic spot in both disciplines in 2026.
Germany again took a clean sweep of the medals having done the same in the 2-man Bobsleigh a week ago. The home nation are also on course to repeat the feat in the 4-man tomorrow as they continue to dominate on their own ice.
Lisa Buckwitz won gold, Laura Nolte silver and Kim Kalicki bronze as all three Germans finished well clear of the field.
The World Championships conclude tomorrow with the 4-man Bobsleigh bringing the curtain down on the two-week competition.
Run 3 starts at 1pm as two crews represent GB in Germany.
Brad Hall, Leon Greenwood, Taylor Lawrence and Greg Cackett sit sixth overnight and Adam Baird, Jens Hullah, Austin Milward and Calum Dixon are 18th after today's first two runs.
This year’s World Championships take place in Winterberg, Germany from February 22nd - March 3rd, with the schedule as follows:
Thurs 22 - Sun 25 Feb
Women's Skeleton: Stoecker 4th; Coltman 6th
Men's Skeleton: Weston 2nd; Wyatt 4th; Thompson 8th
Skeleton Mixed Team Competition: Stoecker & Weston 2nd; Coltman & Wyatt 4th
Women's Monobob: Nicoll 9th
2-man Bobsleigh: Hall & Lawrence 4th; Stanbridge & Hullah 23rd
Fri 1 Mar & Sat 2 Mar
Women's Bobsleigh: Nicoll & Placide 11th
4-man Bobsleigh Heats 1&2 9am
Sun 3 Mar
4-man Bobsleigh Heats 3&4 1pm
All races will be shown live on the IBSF YouTube channel and website
