Martins Dukurs goes into the final day of skeleton action sitting in prime position.

VANCOUVER, Canada — Martins Dukurs is looking set to become Latvia’s first-ever Winter Olympic gold medallist.

The Latvian skeleton pilot has set the Whistling Sliding Centre track alight after the first two of four heats, breaking under the 53 second time barrier on both runs. He is the only athlete to have cracked 53 seconds during the first two heats.

Martins set the early pace in his first run, gaining a 0.24 second advantage over local favorite, Canadian Jon Montgomery. His time of 52.32 seconds also proved too quick for younger brother Tomass, who could only produce the eighth quickest time in the first heat, crossing the line in 52.94 seconds.

Running a reverse order on the second run, Tomass was the first of the brothers on the track, enjoying a much smoother run than his first,  setting the fourth quickest time for the heat, which was enough to improve his position to ninth overall.

Montgomery again proved quick on his second run, having the advantage of a much greater knowledge of the track than his opposition, something which has remained a contentious issue throughout the Olympics to date. Much to the disapproval of other competitors, the Canadians have been given extra training time on their home track, giving them an edge over the other competitors. However, Dukurs was to prove his first run was no fluke, going slightly slower his second time down, but still significantly quicker than the rest of the field.

By just medaling, Martins Dukurs will assist in what has already been Latvia’s most successful ever Winter Olympic campaign  following on from the surprise silver medal obtained by the Šics brothers on the same track yesterday. Latvia’s best medal haul previous to this campaign was a solitary medal at Turin in 2006 with luger Mārtinš Rubenis’ bronze in the men’s luge.

This article is free to view. To read Baltic Reports’ subscription-only articles, click here.