Team USA’s top women’s bobsled pairing will force the defending Olympic champions to have to rally tomorrow at Sanki Sliding Center.
On their second run, driver Elana Meyers and brakeman Lauryn Williams set a new start record (5.13 seconds) and went on to log a 57.63-second time that pushed their overall lead over Kaillie Humphries and Heather Moyse of Canada to .23 of a second.
Humphries and Meyers, the No. 1 and No. 2-ranked World Cup drivers respectively, were expected to settle the gold between them and it looks like that is what will happen in the final two runs tomorrow.
It’s a solid start for the USA-1 team, which had its sled take front-end damage in a training incident last week. The day before, Meyers was also involved in a crash.
The Americans’ second sled, with driver Jamie Greubel and brakeman Aja Evans, is in bronze medal position at .56 of a second behind Meyers and Williams in USA-1.
Fourth place belongs to Belgium-1 (Elfje Willemsen/Hanna Emilie Marien), but they sit almost half a second behind Greubel and Evans for a spot on the podium.
As for hurdler-turned-bobsledder Lolo Jones, she and driver Jazmine Fenlator currently run 11th in the third sled for the U.S.
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