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No Canadian medals in second week of IBSF Worlds

Gough fifth at FIL Finale
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Wrapping up Alex Gough, shown setting up for the FIL World Cup race in Whistler in December, was fifth in the final race of the season in Altenberg, Germany. File photo by Dan Falloon

Canadian sliders performed well but couldn't quite find a way to the podium in the second half of the IBSF World Championships in Konigssee, Germany.

In the four-man bobsleigh, the Justin Kripps sled with Alex Kopacz, Jesse Lumsden and Lascelles Brown cruised into sixth as the Germans swept the medals. Pilots Johannes Lochener and Francesco Friedrich tied for first while Nico Walther settled for third.

"With the way the season has been, I'm pretty happy with this result," said Kripps, who won the two-man World Championship silver medal with Lumsden last week. "I was having a lot of trouble coming out of the S4 straightaway, but overall it was a good race and we're moving in the right direction," he said in a release.

Chris Spring's sled was 13th and Nick Poloniato's 23rd.

As for the skeleton athletes, Dave Greszczyszyn put up a season-best result, placing 10th, while Barrett Martineau took 13th and Kevin Boyer was 22nd. Latvia's Martins Dukurs took the win, trailed by Germany's Axel Jungk and Russia's Nikita Tregybov. On the women's side, Elisabeth Vathje ended up taking sixth to finish as the top Canadian, while Mirela Rahneva was eighth and North Vancouver's Jane Channell was 12th. Germans Jacqueline Loelling and Tina Hermann finished one-two, while Great Britain's Lizzie Yarnold was third.

"I don't think I have ever finished better than 14th in Konigssee so to be in sixth here at World's is pretty nice," Vathje said in a release.

Meanwhile, the lugers also came home empty-handed from the final event of the season in Altenberg, Germany.

The relay team of Alex Gough, Sam Edney and the doubles sled of Tristan Walker and Justin Snith placed fifth, with Germany, Latvia and Russia taking the medals in order.

In individual races, with a sixth-place finish in the women's event, Gough clinched fifth-place overall. In the race, Germany won all three medals with Natalie Geisenberger, Tatjana Huefner and Dajana Eitberger hitting the podium.

As for the men, Mitchel Malyk was the top Canadian in 17th, while Edney took 20th. Russia's Roman Repilov took the win, with Germans Felix Loch and Johannes Ludwig following him.

In doubles, the Walker-Snith sled was eighth while Germans Toni Eggert and Sascha Benecken took the win over podium finishers Matt Mortensen and Jayson Terdiman of the U.S. and Robin Geueke and David Gamm of Germany.