Canada's Mirela Rahneva slides to bronze at 1st skeleton World Cup of season

Canada's Mirela Rahneva started her season with some hardware.

The two-time Olympian from Ottawa claimed skeleton bronze on Friday at the first World Cup event of the campaign in Yanqing, China.

Rahneva, 35, compiled a total time of two minutes 3.99 seconds over her two runs, each of which were the third-fastest of their respective heats.

Germany's Tina Hermann, the reigning World Cup champion, won gold at 2:03.81, while China's Dan Zhao fell just short of top spot with silver on home ice at 2:03.83.

WATCH | Rahneva claims bronze in China:

Rahneva's Canadian teammates Jane Channell and Hallie Clarke placed 12th and 15th, respectively. Clarke, of Belleville, Ont., was making her World Cup debut for Canada after competing last season for the U.S.

The medal marks Rahneva's sixth bronze of her World Cup career, to go with four gold and four silver. She claimed one gold and one silver last season.

Germany also captured the other two titles on offer on Friday, with Christopher Grotheer winning the men's skeleton event while Johannes Lochner and Georg Fleischhauer placed first in the two-man bobsleigh. No Canadians competed in either event.

Live coverage from China continues on Saturday at 5 a.m. ET with the four-man bobsleigh on CBCSports.ca, the CBC Sports app and CBC Gem.