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Jon Montgomery is the lone Canadian going into the final run of the men’s skeleton at the Vancouver Winter Games after a teammate was disqualified Friday. (Jeff McIntosh/Canadian Press)

Jon Montgomery sits second overall heading into the final run of the men’s skeleton competition at the Vancouver Olympics.

The Russell, Alta., native finished his third run in 52.20 seconds, giving him a cumulative time of two minutes 37.37 seconds.

Martins Dukurs sits in first heading into the fourth and final run with a time of 2:37.19 after three runs. The Latvian skeleton star is the current World Cup leader.

Russia’s Alexander Tretyakov is third.

Canadian Mike Douglas was disqualified from the final. The 38-year-ancient from Toronto failed to get his sled to competition officials by the deadline.

Douglas had been seventh going into Friday night’s final two runs.

Earlier, gold medal favourite Mellisa Hollingsworth of Eckville, Alta., finished a disappointing fifth in the women’s competition.

Montgomery was a silver medallist at the 2008 world championship, and is a two-time Canadian national champion.

The men’s final run starts at 7:50 p.m. PT at the Whistler Sliding Centre.

Canada’s Mellisa Hollingsworth says she knows her family and friends are still proud of her, despite a disappointing fifth-place end Friday. (Shaun Botterill/Getty Images)

Mellisa Hollingsworth entered the Vancouver Olympics as an overwhelming favourite to reach the podium in women’s skeleton.

On Friday, she left the Whistler Sliding Centre in tears.

The 29-year-ancient from Eckville, Alta., sat second overall heading into her fourth and final run.

With a strong start, it looked as though she would at least reach the podium — but partway down the track she bounced twice against the wall. The slight error slowed her down enough to send her sliding into fifth, with a cumulative time of three minutes 36.60 seconds.

“It’s really hard. I feel like I’ve let my entire country down,” Hollingsworth told CTV through tears. Hollingsworth was this season’s overall World Cup champion, having reached the podium in seven of eight races.

If Canada boasted a podium lock at Vancouver, she was it.

“I still didn’t give up. I didn’t give up,” she said.

As Hollingsworth dreams crumbled, Fantastic Britain’s Amy Williams’ were realized.

The 27-year-ancient didn’t even reach the podium on the World Cup circuit this season. But she led the pack through each of her four runs en route to the gold medal with a cumulative time of 3:35.64. She set a track record of 53.83 seconds in Thursday’s run.

Germans Kerstin Szymkowiak and Anja Huber won the silver and bronze, respectively. American Noelle Pikus-Pace finished fourth.

Amy Gough of Abbotsford, B.C., finished seventh with a combined time of 3:37.01. Michelle Kelly of Fort. St. John, B.C., finished 13th, clocking at 3:40.79.

Hollingsworth won Canada’s first first-ever Olympic medal in skeleton, at the Winter Games in 2006.

A rough crash at the Whistler Sliding Centre in March 2009, left Hollingsworth with nasty cut on her chin and wrecked sled.

The crash left Hollingsworth shaken, and for a time she refused to start from the top of the Whistler track. Eventually, riding her sled “white lighting,” she overcame her dread of the incredible speed of the Whistler track.

Despite her disappointing end Friday, she said she knew her friends and family were still proud of her.

Before her final run, Darcy Hollingsworth, who calls his daughter his “hero,” wrote a blog for CBCSports.ca.

“My heart is in my throat as I see strangers with signs, shirts, flag, banners-all cheering for my small girl,” he wrote.

“They want to know how I’m feeling so I tell them: [s]cared, nervous, nervous and much more. But most of all, blessed. We are the luckiest people in the world.”

A feeling that, undoubtedly, remains unchanged.

Canadian Michael Douglas competes during the men’s skeleton Thursday at the 2010 Olympics. (Michael Sohn/Associated Press)

Michael Douglas, one of Canada’s top contenders in the men’s skeleton as disqualified just prior to his third run in the competition on Friday at the Whistler Sliding Centre.

Race officials said Douglas was late getting his sled to the parque fermé, the area where the skeleton sleds are inspected before they are allowed to go down the run.

The 39-year-ancient Douglas, of Kleinberg, Ont., was sitting in seventh place after two of four runs, with a combined time of one minute 45.87 seconds.

Calgary’s Jon Montgomery is currently in a podium position, sitting in second place, just 0.18 seconds behind the leader, Martins Dukers of Latvia, after three runs.

Jeff Pain, also of Calgary, is in ninth place heading into the final run.

“I got no words for it,” Montgomery told CTV, after learning of Douglas’s disqualification. “It’s heartbreaking for everybody. I don’t even want to reckon about it. It kills me.”