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“We for sure came last — by a long shot,” Humphries said Saturday on the drive to Montreal for a later flight to Park City, Utah. “We knew that was going to happen. We’re competing with dudes who individually are anywhere from 100 to 120 kilos. As girls, we’re not even close to that.”

Not even close in weight and not even close in speed. Humphries crossed the line 4.77 seconds behind race winner Maximilian Arndt of Germany, who finished in 1 minute, 49.70 seconds Four seconds is an eternity in bobsled, where the difference between gold and silver is usually mere hundredths of a second.

“No one likes to finish last,” Humphries said. “But we knew it would be challenging. We knew we were in a league of our own.”

Under the tutelage of Canadian bobsled legend Pierre Lueders, Russia’s Alexander Kasjanov finished 0.28 seconds off the pace for second place. Justin Kripps of Summerland, B.C., one the first four-man World Cup medal of his career in 1:50.07. Kripps credited the addition of Calgarian Derek Plug to his crew for helping generate the best start times of the day.

“We had a little shuffle up of the team over Christmas and it seems to be working,” Kripps said. “Derek brings a lot of heart and emotion to the team and so do the other boys.”\

The other “boys” are hulking Ben Coakwell of Saskatoon and Alex Kopacz of London, Ont.

“They put it together and really blasted off the top,” Kripps said. “That’s what the difference was. That’s what got us the medal today.”