Canada's Paul Boehm and Michelle Kelly captured the men's and women's titles Thursday at a World Cup skeleton event in Calgary.

Canadian sliders won four of six medals in Thursday's races, making it a successful opening to the World Cup season for the national team.

Michelle Kelly starts her first run during Thursday's women's World Cup skeleton race in Calgary. The native of Fort St. John, B.C., went on to win gold.
(Jeff McIntosh/Canadian Press)

In the women's race, Kelly, the 2003 world champion from Fort St. John, B.C., took gold with a two-run combined time of one minute, 57.21 seconds. Melissa Hollingsworth, the 2006 Olympic bronze medallist from Eckville, Alta., landed the silver in 1:57.60.

"I always look to do well here so it was a great way to build my confidence," Kelly said at the finish line.   

Amy Williams of Britain was third in 1:57.63.

Carla Pavan of Lethbridge, Alta., was eighth in 1:58.61.

Kelly's finish Thursday was sweet redemption after she was disqualified from the same race last season because her sled was overweight by just 200 grams. Snow from the finish line had gotten stuck under the saddle of her sled, which took her over her 29-kilogram weigh in.

"I was driving to the track this morning and said to myself, 'You've had the worst thing happen, which was last year when you got DQ'd, so you can only go up from there,"' Kelly said. "It took a little pressure off." 

For Hollingsworth, Thursday's performance was a comeback of sorts. She took all of last season off from competitive racing, returning to finish just 0.39 of a second behind Kelly.

"Conditions are tough today," Hollingsworth said. "The ice is hard so if you're moving around in your sled, you are going to skid a little bit and that's what happened to me.

"But I'm really happy to be on the podium in my first race back in almost two years."

On the men's side, Boehm of Calgary fought off rocky starts on each of his two runs to come out on top of a stacked men's field in a combined time of 1:54.22.

Boehm sat third after the first run, but made a strong enough effort on his final run to hold off silver medallist Kristan Bromley by just 0.04 of a second.

Jon Montgomery, a native of Russell, Man., sat first after the opening run, but slipped to third after his final trip down the track. 

Still, the second-year national team member was pleased with his result, which was just 0.19 of a second behind Boehm. 

"Against two veterans like these guys, I'll take third any day," Montgomery told CBC Sports' Mark Connolly at the finish line. 

The skeleton team heads to Park City, Utah, next week for the next stop on the World Cup circuit.