Team Infidel
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DOUG ALDEN
Associated Press
PARK CITY, Utah - American Shauna Rohbock had never won as a driver in a World Cup women's bobsled race until this season.
After two races, she has two World Cup gold medals. Rohbock and brakeman Valerie Fleming won for the second straight week, setting a track record at Utah Olympic Park on Friday.
Rohbock also won the season-opener last week in Calgary and she and Fleming will go for a North American sweep next week in Lake Placid, N.Y.
"I just want to drive well and get over my injuries," said Rohbock, who has a nagging injury to her right hip. "If that means me staying at the top while I'm doing it, then that's great. But I don't know. I didn't expect it. That's for sure."
Rohbock and Fleming, who won the silver medal at the Turin Olympics, won Friday by nearly a half-second. Their second run of 48.73 seconds was the fastest ever for women's bobsled on the track, breaking the record of 48.81 that Americans Jill Bakken and Vonetta Flowers set while winning gold at the 2002 Olympics.
Rohbock, a former track and soccer star at Brigham Young, had been Bakken's brakeman before losing to Flowers in a push-off right before the Salt Lake Games. Rohbock said she didn't even know what the track record was until she and Fleming waited to make the final run, well after the sun dropped below the mountains west of the track and the ice got harder and faster.
"They kept announcing, 'Are we going to see one?'" Rohbock said. "It got a little nerve-racking."
Rohbock and Fleming knew they had the record before their "USA1" sled stopped and were heartily cheered as they took off their helmets. Rohbock had plenty of family and friends on hand to see her win for the second straight week.
"Shauna just keeps getting better as a driver and I knew close to the top - at the start - that we'd be able to bring home another gold," Fleming said. "Hopefully, 3-for-3 next week."
Germany's Cathleen Martini and brakeman Janine Tischer were second (1:38.01), followed by Canadians Helen Upperton and Jennifer Ciochetti.
Americans won the first three events in the World Cup skeleton and bobsled stop at Utah Olympic Park. Katie Uhlaender won the women's skeleton Thursday, followed by Salt Lake City native Zach Lund winning his first World Cup title in men's skeleton.
The American streak ended Friday night in the two-men bobsled when Germany's Andre Lange beat U.S. driver Steve Holcomb by 0.25 seconds. The top three finishers were the same as in the opener last week in Calgary.
Lange and brakeman Kevin Kuske finished in 1:35.39, followed by Holcomb and Brock Kreitzburg (1:35.64) and Canada's Pierre Lueders and Lascelles Brown (1:35.73).