THE CANADIAN PRESS
WINTERBERG, Germany — Canadian Michelle Kelly closed out the World Cup skeleton season with a gold medal Friday.
The Fort St. John, B.C., native had a combined time of one minute 58.40 seconds for her fifth World Cup medal of the season. The track record of 59.40 was broken twice in the first heat before Kelly set the mark of 59.10. She followed that with a second run of 59.30.
Anja Huber of Germany was second in 1:58.52 and Katie Uhlaender of the U.S., was third in 1:58.62.
In the men’s race, Jon Montgomery of Russell, Man., won a silver medal with a two-run time of 1:55.37.
Kelly said she executed both runs well.
"I wanted to stay relaxed and go out there to just have fun and that is what I did," said Kelly.
"I had a couple of results coming into this race that I knew weren’t my best so it was nice to be able to go out there and have a great race so I’m pleased."
Mellisa Hollingsworth of Eckville, Alta., was fourth in 1:58.69 and Carla Pavan of Lethbridge, Alta., was ninth in 1:59.50.
Montgomery finished just behind Latvia’s Martins Dukurs, who took the gold in 1:55.35. Germany’s Florian Grassl was third in 1:55.60.
"These were two of my most consistent runs all season and they came on a track where a small mistake can become big because it is not a highly technical track," Montgomery said.
"I slid today virtually without fault. It feels good to get on the podium again in Europe and prove you can do well away from your home track."
Jeff Pain of Calgary was 11th in 1:56.36 and Toronto’s Mike Douglas was 15th in 1:56.75.
Uhlaender finished first in the women’s World Cup points race for the second straight season with 1,670 points. Kelly was 71 points behind in second and Hollingsworth was third, 212 points back.
Britain’s Kristan Bromley finished first in the men’s standings with 1,583 points. Montgomery was second with 1,517, one point ahead of American Zach Lund.
The skeleton season wraps up next week at the world championships in Altenberg, Germany.