Yulia Kanakina fell narrowly short of a first World Cup win as defending women’s skeleton champion Janine Flock edged her out by less than a fifth of a second in Latvia.
Racing in Sigulda – the setting for her Junior World Championships in 2017 – Yulia Kanakina came within a split second of a World Cup win.
In the final race of the calendar year in the International Bobsleigh and Skeleton Federation competition, Kananina took her best World Cup finish and finished around 15 seconds quicker than she did at the previous race in Altenberg.
That also took her a place further on the podium following her second third-placed finish of her career, sliding round in times of 52.46 and 52.35 seconds. Defending World Cup champion Janine Flock, of Austria, started the final as the leader after the first race and held on to her lead to pip Kananina by 0.17 seconds.
© Ints Kalnins / Reuters
Dutchwoman Kimberley Bos finished third, with Russian Elena Nikitina in fifth, ahead of German Tina Hermann, who is the World Champion.
Kananina, 26, regularly keeps her following of almost 85,000 admirers up to speed with her high-velocity feats.
The Krasnoyarsk-born star showed herself receiving her medal alongside her rivals afterwards.
© Ints Kalnins / Reuters
She has admitted in the past that she was initially scared of skeleton after giving up ballet to pursue the sport.