Rahneva, Kripps and Sommer slide to silver medals at IBSF Worlds in Calgary
Canadian athletes reached the second step of the podium twice on the second day of the IBSF World Cup in Calgary. Mirela Rahneva slid her way to a silver medal in women’s skeleton, while duo Justin Kripps and Ryan Sommer claimed silver in the two-man bobsleigh on home ice at the Winsport Centre.
First up on the podium was Mirela Rahneva who captured her second medal of the weekend on Saturday afternoon. After winning a gold medal in women’s skeleton on Friday, Rahneva followed up with a silver medal finish.
The Ottawa native started her race off strong, recording the second-highest time of the first heat with a run of 58.94 seconds. She followed that up with an improved score of 58.58 s.
Despite her strong showing, it wasn’t enough to beat Germany’s Tina Hermann. Hermann, who Rahneva beat for first place in Friday’s race, slid her way to victory with a total time of 1:57.39 minutes. Rahneva finished just 0.13 seconds behind (1:57.52).
Britain’s Laura Deas completed the podium in third.
This stellar performance puts Rahneva third overall in the 2018-2019 world standings.
Canada’s Elisabeth Maier finished just short of the podium in fourth place, only 0.06 s behind Deas’ bronze-medal time. On her first run, Maier held the first-place lead with a time of 58.84, but came up short on her second try. However, the 24-year old won’t be leaving Calgary without some hardware as she picked up a bronze on the first day of competition on Friday.
Jane Channell also competed on Saturday afternoon and finished in seventh place respectively.
On their part of the weekend, Team Canada’s women have had an extremely strong showing in Calgary. Collectively, they earned three medals: one gold, one silver and one bronze.
READ: Skeleton: Mirela Rahneva and Elisabeth Maier double up in Calgary
The second silver of the day went out to bobsleigh partners Kripps and Sommer. The two narrowly missed the top spot of the podium, finishing just 0.09 seconds behind German pairing Francesco Friedrich and Thorston Margis’ first place time of 1:50.84 minutes. However, Kripps and Sommer were able to pass Johannes Lochner and Christopher Weber of Germany, who claimed bronze.
Just one week ago Kripps and Sommer were on the World Cup podium in Lake Placid, New York after winning gold in the 4-man competition. Kripps was also on the podium that weekend with usual bobsleigh partner Cam Stones after winning bronze in the 2-man.
READ: Team Kripps wins 4-man bobsleigh gold in Lake Placid
Nicholas Poloniato and Neville Wright also competed on Saturday, finishing in the top-10 in seventh place (1:51.53).
The IBSF World Cup will continue on Sunday where Canadian athletes are set to compete in men’s skeleton and four-man bobsleigh.
