Latvia's Melbardis wins World Cup 2-man bobsled title

SOCHI, Russia (AP) U.S. bobsledder Elana Meyers Taylor finished her two-woman World Cup campaign in dominant fashion Saturday with her sixth victory of the eight-race season.

The silver medalist at the 2014 Winter Olympics secured her first overall World Cup title last week, making her the first female U.S. pilot to do so for 14 years.

Meyers Taylor continued her form Saturday with brakeman Cherrelle Garrett, winning by 0.61 seconds over two runs from Canada's Kaillie Humphries and Melissa Lotholz.

''Winning six gold medals this season is incredible, and it's a huge testament to how hard Cherrelle, the coaches and all of my teammates worked this season,'' Meyers Taylor said.

The American missed Olympic gold on the same Sochi track last year when she lost by one-tenth of a second to Humphries.

''I don't think it's sunk in yet,'' she said. ''It felt so good to come back here and to face everything that happened last year.''

Third place went to the U.S. duo of Jamie Greubel Poser and Lauren Gibbs, who missed out on silver by 0.01.

''It definitely feels great to come away with a medal here,'' Greubel Poser said. ''We were so close to silver, just one-hundredth of a second, but I can't dwell on it.''

Earlier in the two-man competition, Latvia's Oskars Melbardis secured his first season-long World Cup title in two-man bobsled after finishing second in the final race of the season.

Melbardis and his brakeman Daumans Dreiskens were 0.13 behind Swiss race winners Rico Peter and Simon Friedli.

That was enough for the Latvians to secure the overall title with 1,684 points, 48 ahead of Switzerland's Beat Hefti and Alex Baumann.

Hefti and Baumann took third in Sochi, 0.27 seconds off the lead.

Melbardis can also secure the four-man World Cup title Sunday.