Canada's Mirela Rahneva slides to bronze at skeleton World Cup in Switzerland
Ottawa native earns 2nd podium appearance of season
Canada's Mirela Rahneva captured a bronze medal at the skeleton event in St. Moritz, Switzerland on Friday in the final race of the World Cup season.
After a first run of one minute 9.23 seconds that left her sitting fourth, the 33-year-old Ottawa native lowered her time by 24-hundredths of a second to land on the podium and earn the 11th World Cup medal of her career.
Australia's Jaclyn Narracott won gold in a time of 2:17.56, while Dutch slider Kimberley Bos was took silver in 2:17.62.
Canadian Jane Channell placed seventh at 2:18.91.
WATCH | Canada's Rahneva wins bronze in Switzerland:
Rahneva, an Olympian in 2018, missed all of last year's COVID-shortened season with a neck injury.
"The podium performance today is a really strong result for [Rahneva] on a track that she absolutely loves sliding on," said Canadian skeleton team leader Esther Dalle.
"[Rahneva] has done an incredible job this year working her way back from injury and has made tremendous progress. The entire goal is to peak at the Olympics and this result demonstrates she is on track."
You can watch live World Cup skeleton and bobsleigh action from St. Moritz on CBCSports.ca, the CBC Sports app and CBC Gem.
Dukurs tops men's race
Meanwhile, Latvia's Martins Dukurs cemented his status as gold-medal favourite at the Beijing Olympics by finishing off World Cup skeleton overall season championships on Friday — his 11th
Dukurs capped his title with a win in the season finale.
"This is super cool," said Bos, the first athlete from the Netherlands in any sliding sport — bobsled, skeleton or luge — to win a season-long World Cup title.
Dukurs got his 11th championship in the last 13 seasons and his 61st career World Cup win by finishing in 2:14.39, holding off German sleds that took the next three spots. Alexander Gassner was second in 2:14.84, Christopher Grotheer third in 2:14.90 and Axel Jungk fourth in 2:15.04. Russia's Nikita Tregubov tied Jungk for that fourth-place spot.
Blake Enzie was the top Canadian, placing 19th in 2:16.55.
With files from The Associated Press and The Canadian Press
