All Your Latest News

Jon Montgomery won Canada’s fourth Olympic gold medal of the Vancouver Winter Games after claiming the men’s skeleton competition on Friday night. (Michael Sohn/Associated Press)

Jon Montgomery from Russell, Man., has won the gold medal in men’s skeleton at the Vancouver Olympics.

After sitting second overall heading into the fourth and final round of the men’s skeleton, the 30-year-ancient ripped down the track at the Whistler Sliding Centre in 52.36 seconds.

His cumulative time of three minutes 29.73 seconds guaranteed him at least a silver medal.

Latvia’s Martins Dukurs, the current FIBT World Cup leader, was the overall leader heading into the final run.

Dukurs looked excellent through the start of his run, but lost speed in the second half. His time of 52.61 seconds gave him an overall time of 3:29.80, handing Montgomery the gold medal.

“I lost my mind!” Montgomery exclaimed to CTV about learning he was the Olympic champion.

“I certainly didn’t leave anything on the track,” he said.

Russia’s Alexander Tretyakov won the bronze with a final run of 52.70 seconds and an overall time 3:30.75.

Montgomery’s gold-medal performance is the best ever by a Canadian skeleton athlete at the Olympics.

Teammate Jeff Pain won silver at the 2006 Turin Games.

On Friday, the 39-year-ancient from Calgary finished ninth overall, a respectable Olympic finale for one of the most celebrated skeleton athlete in Canadian history.

Montgomery’s performance comes on the heels of Mellisa Hollingsworth’s disappointing fifth-place end in the women’s skeleton. The 29-year-ancient from Eckville, Alta., was the overall World Cup champion this season and an overwhelming favourite to reach the Olympic podium.

Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir dazzled the Pacific Coliseum crowd with their version of Tango Romantica on Friday. (Paul Chiasson/Canadian Press)

Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir were sitting in second place after the compulsory dance opened the ice-dance competition on Friday at Pacific Coliseum.

Skating last among the 23 pairs, the three-time Canadian champions scored 42.74 points for their Tango Romantica. It was a personal best in the compulsory dance.

Virtue, 20, and Moir, 22, have won silver and bronze at the last two world championships. The pair often find themselves in third after the compulsories, so they’ll likely be pleased with the result.

Defending world champions Oksana Dominina and Maxim Shabalin of Russia lead the pack with 43.76 points. A Russian or Soviet duo has won the event seven of the previous nine times at the Olympics.

Meryl Davis and Charlie White, U.S. champions the last two years, earned a career-best 41.47 points for third place. Davis and White are friendly rivals with Virtue and Moir, training at the same facility in Canton, Mich.

Ice dance continues Sunday with the original dance. Medals will be determined on Monday evening, when the free skate takes place.

Two-time Canadian runners-up Vanessa Crone and Paul Poirier earned a season best 31.14 points and are in 15th place. Crone is from Aurora, Ont., with Poirer a Unionville, Ont., native.

Tanith Belbin and Benjamin Agosto, U.S. champions for five straight years until usurped by Davis and White, are fourth with 40.83 points.

The pair are looking to return to the Olympic podium after winning silver at the Torino Games.

Belbin grew up in Montreal and holds dual citizenship.

Italy’s Federica Faiella and Massimo Scali are fifth, followed by Isabelle Delobel and Olivier Schoenfelder of France, the 2008 world champions.

The French couple are on the comeback trail. They won three Grand Prix events early last season before Delobel suffered a shoulder injury.

Delobel got pregnant last year, welcoming with her husband a son born in October.

Jana Khoklova and Sergei Novitski are next with 37.18 points. The Russians were European champs in early 2009 but have seen mixed results this season.

Fantastic Britain’s Sinead and John Kerr, the best of the four sibling duos in the competition, are in eighth spot.

It was determined earlier this month that the competitors would skate to the Tango Romantica in the compulsory, which involves 50 steps.

Among the criteria judges look at are: ice coverage, speed, balance, crisp footwork, clean edges, excellent carriage and unison between partners.

The dancers also have to demonstrate fluency with both the soft and strong rhythms inherent in the tango.

Some might say Virtue and Moir, as well as Davis and White, had a leg up on many of the other competitors.

Elena Tchaikovskaya, coach of several Russian champions and original choreographer of the Tango Romantica, spent two days at the Arctic Edge facility in Canton giving tips to both the Canadian and American couples.

Virtue and Moir will skate a Spanish flamenco in the original dance.

The telegenic pair are looking to join Tracy Wilson and the late Rob McCall as the only Olympic medallists from Canada in the event. Wilson and McCall won bronze in Calgary in 1988, a dozen years after ice dance made its Olympic debut.

New Jersey Nets’ Devin Harris, right, is fouled by Toronto Raptors’ Andrea Bargnani during the second quarter on Friday in East Rutherford, N.J. (Bill Kostroun/Associated Press)

Rasho Nesterovic scored a season-high 16 points replacing a sidelined Chris Bosh and the Toronto Raptors showed off their depth without an injured all-star in a 106-89 victory over the New Jersey Nets on Friday night.

Jarrett Jack added 18 points and Jose Calderon had 16 points as the Raptors had seven players in double figures in dropping the Nets to 5-50.

DeMar DeRozan and Hedo Turkoglu added 14 points apiece as Toronto shot nearly 60 per cent from the field in extending its franchise record for consecutive 100-point games to 19.

Brook Lopez had 22 points and Devin Harris 19 and 11 assists for New Jersey. Courtney Lee added 17 points in a game in which the Nets fell behind early and never caught up.