Humphries, Jones hold lead at bobsled world championship

ALTENBERG, Germany — Kaillie Humphries and Lolo Jones of the United States are the leaders at the midway point of the women’s bobsled world championship.

Humphries, a two-time Olympic gold medallist for Canada, drove to the fastest time in each of the two runs Friday, she and Jones finishing with a combined time of 1 minute, 52.94 seconds. That puts them 0.34 seconds ahead of the German sled driven by Kim Kalicki and pushed by Ann-Christin Strack.

Another German sled, driven by Laura Nolte and pushed by Deborah Levi, is third, 0.43 seconds off the lead. The U.S. team of Elana Meyers Taylor and Sylvia Hoffman is fourth, 0.83 seconds back.

Toronto’s Erica Voss and Cynthia Appiah are 10th, Edmonton’s Alyssia Risling and Dawn Richardson Wilson are 11th and Christine de Bruin of Stony Plain, Alta., and Sara Villani of Norval, Ont., are 17th.

The final two runs are Saturday. Humphries is the defending world champion and seeking what would be a record fourth women’s world title. She won on the same Altenberg track last season, with Kalicki second.

The two-man bobsled race starts Saturday. Unlike World Cups, which ordinarily are two-heat events, races at the bobsled and skeleton world championships are four-heat competitions.

The skeleton world championships are next Thursday and Friday, while the four-man race and the women’s monobob race are both Feb. 13 and 14.

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The Associated Press