Skeleton gold for Montgomery

The Gold Rush Trail now runs through Russell, Manitoba.

Canada’s Jon Montgomery won gold in the men’s skeleton on Friday, edging Martins Dukurs of Latvia by 0.07 seconds at the Vancouver Winter Games.

Montgomery trailed the Latvian through the first two runs at the Whistler Sliding Centre,but a track-record on run three, and an outstanding start time in his final run catapulted the Canadian pilot to the top with a combined time of three minutes, 29.73 seconds.

“When I saw that plus 0.07s, I lost my mind,” said the Manitoban, “It’s Canada’s gold medal.”

It was Canada’s second consecutive Olympic gold medal in the event, following Duff Gibson’s gold in the Turin Winter Games, and the fourth gold overall for Canada in these Olympics.

Russian Alexander Tretyakov won the bronze.

Reigning silver-medallist Jeff Pain, battling a torn oblique muscle, placed ninth for Canada.

Meanwhile, Canadian Michael Douglas, in a rare and highly unfortunate incident, was disqualified on a technicality.

Douglas was three minutes late removing the covers from his runner blades, which need to be exposed 45 minutes prior to run time.

When asked about the disqualification, teammate Montgomery expressed shock.

“Five minutes before my(third) run I found out. I don’t even want to think about it. It kills me.”

Douglas, a Calgary native, sat in seventh at the time of the DQ, still very much in medal contention.

“The unfortunate thing is that in a normal World Cup, that’s just a fine,” Reid Morrison, Canadian Bobsleigh and Skeleton Team Leader, told The Globe and Mail, “it’s not a disqualification.”

But the day, after all, belonged to the boy from Russell.

The Olympic rings over Vancouver Harbour shone gold for the gregarious Manitoban, and amidst the realization of an Olympic dream, Jon Montgomery remembered the journey.

“Without my sponsors and Own the Podium and the COC and everyone else involved,this wouldn’t be reality, so everyone in Canada has a piece of this gold medal for sure, especially Russell, Manitoba-yeah,yeah,yeah!”