CALGARY -- Helen Upperton shrugged off a shoulder injury Friday to race to a third-place finish in women's World Cup bobsled.
Upperton and Shelly-Ann Brown edged out Canadian teammates Kaillie Humphries and Heather Hughes by 0.35 of a second to finish third behind a pair of German teams piloted by Cathleen Martini and Sandra Kiriasis.
"Getting on the podium in women's (bobsled) is hard," said Upperton, who missed World Cup opener in Whistler, B.C., after a pair of crashes in training. "It's always something we're proud to do."
Martini piloted her Germany 2 team to a two-race time of one minute 53.57 seconds to finish 0.32 seconds ahead of Kiriasis, who led after the first run.
Martini credited her come-from-behind victory to a good push in the second run with help from brakeman Berit Wiacker.
"There was a good upper part in the second run and so I took the speed to the bottom," said Martini, who finished fourth in Whistler, where Kiriasis won gold. "I let the sled go, so I think that was the secret in the second run. It's an absolute great feeling."
Upperton, who finished Friday with a time of 1:54.08, credited the Canadian medical staff for helping get her and Brown ready to compete. Upperton suffered a separated shoulder in Whistler, while Brown sustained bruised and dislocated ribs.
"We have a great medical staff and they worked on us endlessly since those crashes," Upperton said. "I'm all taped up and Shelly's been getting lots of therapy. They're the main reason why we were actually able to slide today."
Upperton credited Brown with powering their Canada 2 bobsled to a pair of quick starts.
"I'm lucky to have Shelly," said the Calgary resident. "I'm not 100 per cent and she's so fast and she pushed so great. I'm just trying to keep up. She's awesome."
After missing the first race in Whistler, Brown was happy to get to compete in Canada before heading to the United States and then Europe for the rest of the season.
"I was really nervous and excited and ready to go," said Brown, a native of Pickering, Ont. "I'm so happy now that there's two tracks in Canada because we still get to have another chance to perform in front of our family and our home crowd."
Humphries, of Calgary, and Hughes, of Edmonton, won silver in the season's first event in Whistler.
"It's always nice to see Canadians on top of the podium," said Humphries, who added she was disappointed to finish out of the top three this week.
"Our pushing was okay and the driving was okay. I made a few mistakes in the first run as well as the second run and it cost us some time."
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