Canada's Mirela Rahneva wins 1st skeleton World Cup
Latvia's Dukurs takes men's event
Ottawa's Mirela Rahneva won the women's skeleton race in St. Moritz in just her fifth World Cup event. Rahneva finished nearly two seconds ahead of second-place American Kendall Wesenberg. Austria's Janine Flock took third place.
"It means a lot to be able to get my first win on this track. It is such a special place," Rahneva in a press release. "I was really able to focus this week, and I knew what I needed to do on the track.
"I'm overwhelmed and it was a great day."
Fellow Canadian Elisabeth Vathje finished in fourth, but retained third overall position in the standings. Rahneva's gold bumped her up to fifth in the standings.
Congrats <a href="https://twitter.com/MirelaRahneva">@MirelaRahneva</a> on your win today <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/skeleton?src=hash">#skeleton</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/SMBCbobsleigh">@SMBCbobsleigh</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/stmoritz?src=hash">#stmoritz</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/IBSFsliding">@IBSFsliding</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/BobCANSkel">@BobCANSkel</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/killedit?src=hash">#killedit</a> 🇨🇦
—@BobsledKaillieIn the men's event, World Cup leader Martins Dukurs edged Yun Sungbin by three one-hundredths of a second to win.
Yun could not hold a first-run lead of 0.22 seconds as he sought to repeat his victory last year on the Olympia track, which gave South Korea a first win in World Cup history. Nikita Tregybov of Russia was third Friday, trailing Dukurs by 0.55 seconds.
Dukurs' second straight win extended his lead over Yun with three races left.
Olympic champion Alexander Tretyakov led the standings until being suspended by the sports governing body. He is implicated in an IOC investigation of Russian doping at the Sochi Olympics.
Tretyakov's provisional suspension was later lifted and he placed fourth Friday behind Dukurs.
Calgary's Barrett Martineau continued his season-long run as Canada's top slider, finishing 11th in the final. Fellow Canadians Kevin Boyer and Dave Greszczyszyn did not reach the final, finishing 23rd and 24th respectively.
With files from The Associated Press