Canada's Cynthia Appiah wins World Cup silver medal in monobob
'Always awesome to see your flag raised above the podium,' Appiah said
Canada's Cynthia Appiah captured a silver medal in the final World Cup monobob race of the season on Saturday in Lillehammer, Norway.
Appiah posted a two-run combined time of one minute, 48.66 seconds down the 16-corner track.
"Finally," said Appiah in a release from Bobsleigh Canada. "This feels amazing. It's been a frustrating season for me, similar to last year, waiting until the last World Cup to get on that podium. I'm choosing to look at it as a positive though, and that we are peaking right time before World Championships. There is no better time for this than now."
It was the 11th monobob podium of Appiah's career. The 34-year-old hadn't seen the Canadian flag raised above the podium since last year when she snagged the bronze medal in the final race of the season in Lake Placid, New York.
WATCH | Toronto's Appiah wins her 1st World Cup medal of the season:
"It so great seeing the Canadian flag wherever we go, but always awesome to see your flag raised above the podium (especially on National Flag Day)," said Appiah. "Standing on the podium, and watching that flag raised always puts it into perspective how amazing it is to compete for our country, and reassurance that we are so supported by our fellow Canadians back home regardless of our results."
Germany's Lisa Buckwitz of Germany won bronze to lock up the overall season points title. Bree Walker of Australia took gold in the race and finished second in the points chase.
Appiah finished seventh in the overall standings.
The U.S. skipped the World Cup finale to spend more time preparing for next month's bobsleigh and skeleton world championships in Lake Placid, New York.
On the men's side, Francesco Friedrich is atop the two-man bobsleigh world again.
The German star clinched his seventh World Cup season title on Saturday with a second-place finish in Lillehammer.
Johannes Lochner won the race for Germany and finished second overall. Adam Ammour drove to third, giving the Germans a two-man medals sweep.
Kindl makes history
Wolfgang Kindl of Austria started his day with a luge World Cup doubles win. He ended it with a piece of luge history.
Kindl became the first slider in 32 years to win a men's singles and doubles race in the same World Cup weekend — and he did it two hours apart, in Pyeongchang, South Korea. He teamed with Thomas Steu for the doubles win, then held off Dominik Fischnaller of Italy for the singles victory.
The International Luge Federation said Kindl is the fourth men's slider to pull off such a weekend sweep, joining Norbert Huber (who did it three times in 1985 and 1986), Hansjorg Raffl (who did it in 1986) and Wilfried Huber (who did it in 1993).
"To be honest, I was really nervous at the start," Kindl said. "But it's a wonderful day. I was always fast in training, but a race is something else."
Kristers Aparjods was third for Latvia in the men's singles race. The top American in the men's singles race was Tucker West, who placed 12th.
Max Langenhan of Germany was fourth and remained in the World Cup overall lead, 58 points ahead of Nico Gleirscher of Austria heading into next weekend's finale.
Germany took silver and bronze in men's doubles, with Toni Eggert and Florian Mueller second and Tobias Wendl and Tobias Arlt taking third. Wendl and Arlt are a commanding 85 points ahead of Steu and Kindl for the World Cup title with one race left.
Zach Di Gregorio and Sean Hollander were seventh for the U.S.
Up next
Bobsleigh: Two-woman, four-man World Cup finales at Lillehammer, Sunday.
Luge: Women's singles, mixed doubles and mixed singles at Pyeongchang, Sunday.
Skeleton: World championships for men and women, March 6-7 in Lake Placid.
With files from CBC Sports