Elana Meyers (Douglasville, Ga.) teamed with Aja Evans (Chicago. Ill.) to earn her first World Cup gold medal as a pilot and Evans’ first-career victory by 0.13 seconds over Canadians Kaillie Humphries and Heather Moyse. Jamie Greubel (Newtown, Pa.) and Katie Eberling (Palos Hills, Ill.) completed a North American sweep of the podium with a bronze medal performance, followed by Jazmine Fenlator (Wayne, N.J.) and Emily Azevedo (Chico, Calif.) in fourth.
“I think our goal of finishing 1-2-3 in Sochi is starting to come to fruition,” Meyers said. “Today was super exciting to be able to come to our home track and get a first win as a pilot, and get Aja her first win.”
Meyers and Evans were the fastest team off the start block with a push of 5.16 seconds, and Meyers piloted her BMW manufactured sled to the finish just 0.01 seconds behind reigning World Cup champion Humphries.
“Having a great start with Aja behind me gives me the ability to make mistakes,” Meyers said. “I did make some mistakes, I did not have perfect runs. Aja gave me everything she had and that is all I can ask for. We felt confident after our first run. We told each other not to worry about what the competition was doing and just focus on what we needed to do and go on the attack.”
Meyers and Evans, tired of finishing on the cusp of gold, burst off the block in the second run and surged past the Canadians to take the lead with a combined time of 1:37.67 in front of a home crowd. Humphries and Moyse dropped into second with a total time of 1:37.80.
Evans’ mom saw her daughter slide for the first time tonight, and Meyers thinks she might be the good luck charm.Meyers had a taste of victory in 2009 as a brakeman for Shauna Rohbock in Whistler, Canada, but had yet to climb to the top of the medal stand as a driver.
Greubel followed up her bronze medal performance in last week’s World Cup opener with another bronze medal today after clocking a two-run total of 1:37.86 in the Putinka branded sled. Greubel and Eberling posted competitive start times of 5.28 and 5.30 seconds for third place runs of 48.78 and 49.08 seconds, respectively. This was Greubel’s third-career World Cup medal, and Eberling’s fifth.
“I had two pretty good runs,” Greubel said. “I know I have a little bit of room for improvement. I’m glad tomorrow I get another chance to get back out there because I know I can slide really fast on this track. I look forward to another opportunity to prove that.”
Fenlator rebounded from 15th place last week with a fourth place result tonight with Azevedo. The duo trailed their teammates by 0.29 seconds to finish just outside of the medals with a combined time of 1:38.15.
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