Laura Nolte leads German teammate Mariama Jamanka after first day of two-woman bob

Laura Nolte leads a Germany 1-2 after the first day of the Beijing 2022 two-woman bobsleigh competition on Friday (18 February).

2016 Youth Olympic monobob champion Nolte and brakewoman Deborah Levi clocked 1:01.04 on their first run before breaking that track record by three-hundredths of a second in heat two to take the overnight lead.

PyeongChang 2018 gold medallist Mariama Jamanka is second overnight with Tokyo 2020 100m semi-finalist Alexandra Burghardt on the brakes.

Jamanka trailed by just 0.06 after the first heat, but was not quite as smooth as her compatriot on run two to leave her fully half a second down on the 23-year-old European champion.

USA's Elana Meyers Taylor, seeking her fifth medal in her final Olympic race, is third overnight (+0.74) ahead of Canada's monobob bronze medallist Christine de Bruin (+1.16).

Three-time Olympic gold medallist Kaillie Humphries - who is suffering with a calf strain - was fourth after the first run but lost speed as she hit the wall going into turn 9 and slipped down to fifth place some 1.33 seconds off the pace.

Another German, Kim Kalicki, is just one-hundredth further back in sixth.

Heat 3 of the two-woman bob is at 20:00 local time on Saturday with the fourth and final run to decide the medals at 21:30.

MORE: Why German bobsleigh prodigy Laura Nolte is one to watch at Beijing 2022