WINTERBERG, Germany – Canada’s Amy Gough raced to skeleton gold Saturday to finally stand atop the World Cup podium.
The 34-year-old from Abbotsford, B.C., who already has a silver and three bronze medals, won in a time of one minute .16 seconds.
“It has been a rough week so this feels really good,” said Gough. “It has taken me a long time to get here, but my training went really well this summer and I’m the strongest that I have ever been.
“Just because I’m older, I think this shows you can’t kick me out yet.”
Germany’s Katharina Heinz won silver in 1:00.24, while teammate Marion Thees slid to the bronze medal with a time of 1:00.26.
Calgary’s Sarah Reid was ninth in 1:00.87.
World champion Martins Dukurs of Latvia the men’s race, exactly a year since he last failed to finish first.
Dukurs had a combined time of 57.9 seconds to finish 0.32 seconds ahead of Germany’s 2009 European champion Frank Rommel. Russia’s Alexander Tretiakov was third, 0.39 seconds back.
Calgary’s Eric Neilson finished fifth in 59.21 seconds, while Toronto’s Michael Douglas was ninth in 59.43 seconds.
The event featured a new race format with two races scheduled for Friday followed by the top-10 athletes doing a one-run race for the medals Saturday in an effort to gain more exposure for the sport.
Heavy snow however forced the cancellation of one run Friday.
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