Canadian teen slides to skeleton world title
Canada’s Hallie Clarke won the women’s skeleton competition at the bobsled and skeleton world championships on Friday.
The 19-year-old from Brighton, Ont., clocked a four-run time of three minutes 51.27 seconds to become the youngest skeleton world champion in history.
She was tied with Germany’s Hannah Neise after three runs but pulled away from the pack with a final run of 56.93 seconds, the fastest time of the competition.
“It’s crazy, it still feels like a dream. It was my goal today just to have fun no matter what. I never expected to be in this position,” Clarke said.
Kim Meylemans of Belgium finished 0.22 seconds behind Clarke to secure the silver medal, while Neise, the 2022 Olympic champion, settled for bronze, 0.26 seconds back, following a bumpy final run.
Mirela Rahneva of Ottawa, who won bronze last year at the world championships in St. Moritz, Switzerland, finished seventh in 3:51.63, while Calgary’s Jane Channell was 11th in 3:52.72.
The first notable injury of Blue Jays spring training hit on Friday and has at least temporarily sidelined one of the most prominent names in camp.
Top prospect Ricky Tiedemann suffered what the team is describing as left hamstring discomfort during conditioning drills Friday and won’t get the start for Saturday’s Grapefruit League opener.
The team is cautiously hopeful the ailment isn’t serious for the strapping left-hander who figures to have a prominent spot on the team’s pitching staff at some point.
“It’s precautionary right now and we’ll get more imaging,” manager John Schneider said. “Encouraging that he finished his conditioning but taking it a little bit slow with him.”
Schneider said Tiedemann first felt the discomfort while “running around” in Friday drills at the Jays’ player development complex.
“We won’t want to put a timeline on it, but we’ll know more tomorrow,” Schneider said.
Winnipeg Jets chairman Mark Chipman says the NHL team’s future could be in jeopardy if attendance doesn’t improve.
In an interview with The Athletic, Chipman said the Jets need to get back to a season ticket base of 13,000, and current attendance numbers are “not going to work over the long haul.”
The Jets are struggling to draw fans to Canada Life Centre, the NHL’s smallest permanent arena with a capacity of 15,225 for hockey games.
Despite icing a competitive team led by star goaltender Connor Hellebuyck, the Jets have the second-lowest average attendance at 13,098. Only the Arizona Coyotes, who are temporarily playing at 4,600-seat Mullett Arena in Tempe, draw fewer fans.