Jacqueline Loelling leads German sweep at skeleton World Cup

Defending champion Jacqueline Loelling extended her overall lead with her third skeleton World Cup win of the season, leading a German sweep of the podium on Friday in Altenberg, Germany.

The 22-year-old Loelling was fastest in the first run and quick enough in the second for a combined time of one minute 57.74 seconds, beating Tina Hermann by 0.13 seconds and Anna Fernstaedt by 0.43.

Jane Channell of North Vancouver, B.C., was sixth (+1.33) and Calgary's Elisabeth Vathje ninth (+1.39), while Ottawa's Mirela Rahneva did not qualify for the final run and finished 22nd.

Channell matched her second-best finish of the season for the third time. 

"Today went really well for me. I was able to put everything I learned in training into two decent runs today. I feel like one can never have enough runs here in Altenberg. There is always something to learn and take away from this technical track," said Channell.

With two races remaining, Loelling leads the overall standings with 1,227 points. Vathje is next with 1,118, and Hermann third with 1,084.

A race-winner is awarded 225 points, while the runner-up gets 210.

On the men's side, Yun Sung-bin of South Korea followed up by extending his lead in the men's standings with his fourth win in six competitions.

Yun was fastest in both his runs for a combined time of 1:54.28, beating Russia's Alexander Tretiakov by 0.39 and Germany's Christopher Grotheer by 0.76. Another Russian, Nikita Tregubov, was fourth. Yun stretched his lead to 1,320 points — 100 ahead of Martins Dukurs, who was fifth, and 216 ahead of Dukurs' sixth-place brother Tomass.

Brampton, Ont., native Dave Greszczyszyn (+1.98) and Calgary's Barrett Martineau (+2.01) finished 10th and 11th, respectively. Kevin Boyer of Calgary was 2.66 seconds back of the winner for 15th place.