Olympic roundup: What Canada did on Day 8
Last Updated: Saturday, February 20, 2010 | 3:58 PM ET
By Dan Robson, Chris Iorfida and John Molinaro, CBC Sports
Canada needed a special delivery, and Jon Montgomery brought it.
The 30-year-old from Russell, Man., entered the Vancouver Olympics with an outside shot at winning a medal in men's skeleton. On Friday, he left the Whistler Sliding Centre as an Olympic champion.
Ranked fifth in the World Cup standings, Montgomery sat second overall through the first three of four races. Entering the final race, on the heels of Mellisa Hollingsworth's fifth-place finish in the women's skeleton, Montgomery raced his finest when the pressure was on.
He ripped down the track in 52.36 seconds and his cumulative time of three minutes 29.73 seconds guaranteed Montgomery at least a silver medal.
Latvia's Martins Dukurs, the current FIBT World Cup leader, was the overall leader heading into the final run.
Dukurs looked good through the start of his run, but lost speed in the second half. His time of 52.61 seconds gave him an overall time of three minutes 29.8 seconds, handing Montgomery the gold medal.
"I was biting my nails for sure," said Montgomery, recalling watching Dukurs come down for the final run.
"I started to realize there was a possibility that I could win this race on his exit into Corner 7. Those (interval) numbers got lower and lower until he was in the plus side and I lost my mind."
Montgomery's gold-medal performance matches the win by Calgary's Duff Gibson at the Torino Games in 2006.
Teammate Jeff Pain had won silver at the Torino Games. On Friday, the 39-year-old from Calgary finished ninth overall, a respectable Olympic finale for one of Canada's most celebrated skeleton athletes.
Michael Douglas of Kleinburg, Ont., was disqualified just before his third run because he was late getting his sled to a pre-race inspection. The 39-year-old was seventh after two runs.
Montgomery's performance came just hours after of Hollingsworth's fifth-place finish in the women's skeleton. The 29-year-old from Eckville, Alta., was the overall World Cup champion this season and an overwhelming favourite to reach the Olympic podium.
Also on Friday, Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir were in second place after the compulsory dance opened the ice-dance competition. Skating last among the 23 pairs, the three-time Canadian champions scored 42.74 points for their Tango Romantica. It was a personal best in the compulsory dance.
"As I said to Tessa, we've been training for this moment all our lives. It's really quite special for us," Moir said.
Virtue, 20, and Moir, 22, have won silver and bronze at the last two world championships. The pair often find themselves in third after the compulsories.
"Every competition, every worlds, it's this close," Moir said. "You can't win the competition, but you can lose it (in compulsories)." Virtue is from London, Ont., and Moir is from Ilderton, Ont.
Canadian curler Kevin Martin also had a good day.
The skip from Edmonton curled at a near-perfect 98 per cent efficiency rating, coasting to a 10-3 victory over Johnny Fredericksen of Denmark in six ends.
"Yeah, I didn't think I missed much," Martin said after the game. "It takes a little pressure off when all four work that hard because then there's no looking at anybody in particular because everybody's worked their butt off," he said.
Canada is a perfect 5-0 and sits atop the men's standings.
It was a tough day for Canadian skiers, though.
Norway's Aksel Lund Svindal won the Olympic super-giant slalom on Friday for his second medal in as many races at the Vancouver Games, with Canadian Erik Guay again left agonizingly close to a podium finish.
Montreal's Guay missed the podium by 3-100ths of a second on Whistler Mountain, finishing fifth for the second race in a row.
"It's tough to swallow, finishing just a couple of hundredths of a second off the podium," Guay said. "There is not much to say.
"It was totally in my hands. I just blew it on the third gate there and was playing catch-up after that. I just didn't pull through on those gates."
North Vancouver's Manny Osborne-Paradis and Robbie Dixon both failed to finish, while Jan Hudec of Calgary tiede for 23rd.
Osborne-Paradis's run started badly and got worse. He took a wide turn early on the bumpy course, nearly lost his balance coming through a gate later, looked for a moment like he might recover, then went down for good and slid harmlessly to a stop.
"Right from the start gate I was having problems on my right ski," said Osborne-Paradis. "I don't know what was going on. It just seems all my right-ski turns until I fell were not as crisp as I would have liked them to be.
"That's ski racing. It's not the first week I've had a terrible week. It probably won't be my last, either. It's just too bad it happened here at the Olympics."
Other key Canadian results from Friday:
Women's cross-country skiing, 15K pursuit: Sara Renner of Canmore, Alta., finished 10th with a time of 41:37.9; Madeleine Williams of Canmore finished 41st (44:11.2); Perianne Jones of Almonte, Ont., was 57th (45:48.7).
Women's curling: Cheryl Bernard and Team Canada defeated Denmark 5-4 in an extra end to improve to 4-0.
