Canada's Hallie Clarke races to lead at midway point of skeleton worlds

Canada's Hallie Clarke seems to feel right at home in Winterberg, Germany.

The Brighton, Ont., native leads the women's skeleton event through two heats Thursday at the world championships on the same track where she won junior world gold just last year.

Clarke, 19, posted the second-fastest time in the first heat (58.20 seconds) and 10th-fastest in the second (58.97) for a combined time of one minute 57.17 seconds.

A pair of Germans currently occupy the other two podium spots, with Tabitha Stoecker in second (1:57.20) and Hannah Neise in third (1:57.23).

WATCH | Clarke stuns the field to lead worlds at midway point:

Canada's Jane Channell is in seventh place at 1:57.38 while Ottawa's Mirela Rahneva, who won two World Cup medals including one gold this season, sits ninth at 1:57.43.

Clarke has been shut out of the World Cup podium this season, but the dual citizen posted two second-place finishes while competing for the U.S. last year. She moved back to the Canadian team in the off-season when it hired her personal coach Joe Cecchini.

Live coverage of the world championships continues with the final women's skeleton heats on Friday beginning at 6 a.m. ET on CBCSports.ca, the CBC Sports app and CBC Gem.