Canada’s Melissa Lotholz Slides to Sixth in World Cup Monobob

LILLEHAMMER, Nor.—Canada’s Melissa Lotholz captured her third top six World Cup monobob finish in as many races on Saturday in Lillehammer, Norway.
 
The 33-year-old matched strides with the world’s most explosive bobsleigh women, clocking a two-run time of 1:48.50 at the Norway Olympic Sliding Centre
 
“I am really happy. The last Olympics I was the highest ranked athlete to not compete in monobob so it is wild that I’m having this consistency,” said Lotholz. “Last season I struggled to finish top 10 and now this year I’m in the top six in all three races. I’m very excited to see this consistency.”
 
The Barrhead, Alta. resident, who became the first Canadian to earn a monobob World Cup medal in Igls in 2021, demonstrated her podium potential in the final heat again in Norway. Sitting in ninth spot after the first run down the 16-corner frozen waterslide, Lotholz blasted up the leaderboard with the third-fastest downtime in the final heat (54.22).
 
Lotholz credits changes to her preparation over the summer for the turnaround – making the decision to move her seating position further back and to invest in new runners.
 
Australia’s Bree Walker rocketed to the gold medal with a combined time of 1:47.88. Austria’s Katrin Beierl was second at 1:48.32. Germany’s Laura Nolte snagged the final spot on the women’s monobob podium at 1:48.36.
 
Toronto’s Cynthia Appiah also had her strongest monobob race of the season, sliding to eighth spot. Still fighting to be further up the standings, the 35-year-old was steady down the 1,375-metre chute where she clocked a combined time of 1:48.54.
 
“This season hasn’t started the way I would have liked. As disappointed as I am with today’s results, it’s a huge improvement from the first two monobob races of the season,” said Appiah, who posted the third and second-fastest start times. “Hopefully this is a sign that things are starting to turn around.”
 
Kristen Bujnowski, of Mount Brydges, Ont., also put together two top five start times. Bujnowski, who is competing in her first full season on the World Cup, was 16th at 1:48.99
 
Canada’s four-man crew of Pat Norton (Ottawa), Luke Stoikos (Toronto), Mark Zanette (Woodbridge, Ont.) and Edmonton’s Shane Ohrt had a season-best ninth place finish. The new crew, piloted by Norton, posted top 10 runs in each of their two heats to chalk up a combined time of 1:40.41.
 
Canada’s other four-man sled piloted by Taylor Austin (Lethbridge, Alta.) also had a solid outing finishing one spot out of the top 10. Austin and his crew of Shaq Murray-Lawrence (Scarborough, Ont.), Mike Evelyn O’Higgins (Ottawa) and Yohan Eskrick-Parkinson (Calgary) clocked-in at 1:40.51 for 11th place.
 
Germany’s Johannes Lochner piloted his crew of Thorsten Margis, Jorn Wenzel and Georg Fleischhauer to the winner’s circle with a time of 1:39.88.
 
The World Cup wraps up on Sunday in Lillehammer with the two-woman bobsleigh race, along with the back half of the four-man double header.
 
Complete Women’s Monobob Results:
Complete Four-Man Results: