OTTAWA, March 7 (Xinhua) -- Tina Hermann of Germany was in first place after the first two heats of the women's skeleton event at the world championships.
Hermann finished her first run in 53.17 seconds and her second in 53.48 for a combined time of one minute 46.65 seconds on Thursday at the Whistler Sliding Centre.
Fellow Germans Jacqueline Loelling and Sophia Griebel were second and third, respectively, with times of 1:47.00 and 1:47.47.
Lin Huiyang from China finished in 22th place, 3.80 seconds off the lead.
On the men's side, Latvia's Martins Dukurs was first in 1:44.06 after two runs, Nikita Tregubov of Russia was second, 0.37 seconds behind and Tomass Dukurs, also of Latvia, was third, 0.48 seconds adrift.
PyeongChang Olympic champion Yun Sunbin from South Korea was in sixth place, trailing 77 seconds.
Geng Wenqiang was the top Chinese in 12th place, 1.59 seconds off the lead. China's Yan Wengang was 19th, 1.96 seconds back.
The third and fourth runs go Friday.
