Canada’s Mirela Rahneva slips to bronze at the Skeleton World Cup in Switzerland
Canada’s Mirela Rahneva won a bronze medal in Friday’s final race of the World Cup season at the skeleton event in St. Moritz, Switzerland.
After a first run of 1 minute 9.23 seconds that saw her finish in fourth place, the 33-year-old Ottawa native cut her time by 24 hundredths of a second to finish on the podium and claim the 11th World Cup medal of her career to win.
Australia’s Jaclyn Narracott won gold in a time of 2:17.56, while Kimberley Bos of the Netherlands took silver in 2:17.62.
Canada’s Jane Channel was seventh in 2:18.91.
CLOCK | Canada’s Rahneva wins bronze in Switzerland:
Rahneva, a 2018 Olympian, 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 to slide on,” said Canadian Skeleton Team Leader Esther Dalle.
“[Rahneva] has done an incredible job this year working his way back from injury and making tremendous progress. The whole goal is to shine at the Olympics and this result shows that she’s on the right track.”
Follow live skeleton and bobsleigh World Cup action from St. Moritz on CBCSports.ca, the CBC Sports App and CBC Gem.
Dukurs leads men’s races
Meanwhile, Latvia’s Martins Dukurs cemented his status as a gold medal favorite at the Beijing Olympics by finishing Friday’s skeleton World Cup overall championship – his 11th
Dukurs capped his title with a win in the season finale.
“It’s super cool,” said Bos, the first athlete from the Netherlands in a sliding sport — bobsleigh, skeleton or luge — to win a season-long World Cup title.
Dukurs clinched his 11th championship in the last 13 seasons and his 61st career World Cup win, finishing in 2:14.39 and fending off German sleds that took the next three places. 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 shared fourth place with Jungk.
Blake Enzie was the top Canadian, finishing 19th in 2:16.55.