Canada's Kimberley McRae wins luge world championship bronze
Germany's Tatjana Huefner wins women's world title
Canada's Kimberley McRae will be bringing home a bronze medal from the luge world championships in Innsbruck, Austria, on Saturday.
McRae was 0.240 seconds behind world champion Tatjana Huefner of Germany, her fifth career individual gold medal, and first in five years.
"It is pretty incredible. After that first run I thought I had no chance," McRae said. "It honestly didn't cross my mind at all that I could be a medallist today heading into the last run. I was two-tenths behind and just thought I was out of it."
McRae joins teammate Alex Gough as the only two Canadians to reach the singles podium at a luge world championships. Gough, who finished fifth on Saturday, first reached the podium in 2011 with a bronze in Cesana, Italy and later won another bronze in Whistler in 2013.
"That is pretty cool and quite an honour. I'm honestly speechless," McRae said. "I took a huge step forward this year. I think this shows all of the work we put in training this year is paying off. It really is amazing."
Leading after the first run, Huefner posted the second-fastest time in the final run to beat Erin Hamlin of the United States by 0.213 seconds. Hamlin had won the gold medal in Friday's sprint event.
Olympic and defending world champion Natalie Geisenberger was only 17th before setting a track record of 39.822 seconds in the final run to finish sixth, 0.294 behind her German teammate.
Huefner has won eight medals at world championships and three at Olympics, including gold at the 2010 Vancouver Games.
In the doubles race, Toni Eggert and Sascha Benecken led a German sweep of the podium hours after Huefner's win.
Eggert and Benecken posted a track record of 39.468 seconds in the first run and held on to their lead to beat Olympic champions Tobias Wendl and Tobias Arlt by 0.206, and Robin Geueke and David Gamm by 0.385.
Austrians Peter Penz and Georg Fischler were the best non-German finishers in fourth. Canada's Tristan Walker and Justin Snith placed ninth.
It was the first world title for Eggert and Benecken, who had won silver three times before. They have won seven of nine races in the luge World Cup season.
With files from CBC Sports