Humphries and Moyse claim Canada's seventh gold in Vancouver

Bobsleigh & Skeleton Vancouver 2010 Post a comment

Posted: Thursday 25th February 2010 | 4:16

KAILLIE Humphries and Heather Moyse led home a Canadian 1-2 in the women's bobsleigh competition as their rivals fell by the wayside at the Whistler Sliding Centre.

GOLDEN GIRLS: Kaillie Humphries and Heather Moyse take women's bobsleigh gold to hand Canada their seventh gold medal of Vancouver 2010 (Getty Images)

Humphries and Moyse, second in the World Cup standings, broke the track record at the lightning fast Whistler track three times in her four runs to complete an emphatic victory.

They clocked a combined time of 3:32.28 minutes while compatriots Helen Upperton and Shelley-Ann Brown leapfrogged their American rivals to take silver.

"I know it's happened. It just hasn't quite sunk in yet."

"It felt a bit of relief. It was nice to know I had four consistent runs and it was nice to know we did it, we did it together.

"As soon as you become complacent, that's when this track kicks you in the butt."

"The track is a difficult track, don't get me wrong, and the home-track advantage helped with that.

"But anything can happen. Lyndon Rush in the men's event had home-track advantage too and mistakes can always be made.

"Today however, with 1, 2, we were able to show that Canada is strong in this sport."

Humphries and Moyse had a commanding lead in their final run and while they could not improve on their track record of 52.85 seconds - set in the third run when they became first to break 53 seconds - they cruised to victory by 0.85 seconds.

Upperton and Brown produced the fastest fourth run of 53.17, to collect silver, knocking the American second team of Erin Pac and Elana Meyers into bronze-medal position.

The North Americans dominated the podium and as Humprhies and Moyse picked up Canada's seventh gold medal of the Games - equalling their best performance at a Winter Olympics.

Defending champion Sandra Kiriasis of Germany who teamed up with Christin Senkel could not return to the podium and had to settle for fourth 0.41 behind the American pair.

"It's pretty sweet. A little surreal. I was definitely hoping to medal but didn't expect it in any way. There is a lot of competition," said Pac.

"I knew as long as we stayed on all four runners, we'd be able to get a medal."

Germany's Cathleen Martini and Romy Logsch arrived in Vancouver as a hot favourite for gold, having dominated recent World Cup races but lying fourth after the third run they crashed in the fourth and were disqualified.

World champions Nicola Minichiello and Gillian Cooke had endured a difficult time of things in the opening two runs and were placed tenth after the first two runs.

And they suffered a crash in the third and while they did slide down the track to finish 16th after three runs, they opted against competing in the fourth.

Great Britain's second sled of Paula Walker and Kelly Thomas, in their first Olympic appearance, ended up 11th after posting the 15th and 11th fastest times in their third and fourth runs respectively.

AS IT HAPPENS: Day 13 of the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver