Rudman, Montgomery win World Cup skeleton races; Uhlaender of US gets a top-5 finish

Canadians dominate skeleton race in Italy

CESANA PARIOL, Italy — Canada’s Jon Montgomery and Britain’s Shelley Rudman won World Cup skeleton races Friday on the 2006 Turin Olympic track.

Katie Uhlaender led the Americans with a fifth-place finish in Italy.

Montgomery’s two-run time of 1 minute, 55.54 seconds was about a half-second better than Latvia’s Martins Dukurs . Canada’s Jeff Pain took third, while Americans Eric Bernotas and Zach Lund tied for ninth.

Rudman’s time of 1:57.46 was easily good enough for gold in the women’s race. Germany’s Marion Trott was second and Canada’s Mellisa Hollingsworth finished third.

Uhlaender is still recovering from a series of offseason knee surgeries. She finished one spot ahead of U.S. teammate Noelle Pikus-Pace.