Canada’s Emily Batty wins bronze at mountain bike worlds

Canada's Emily Batty. (Sean Kilpatrick/CP)

LENZERHEIDE, Switzerland — Canadian Emily Batty won bronze at the mountain bike world championship on Saturday.

The product of Brooklin, Ont., finished one minute 58 seconds behind American Kate Courtney.

Courtney is the first American to win the mountain bike world championships in nearly two decades, holding off Danish rider Annika Langvad to win the rainbow jersey.

Langvad took an early lead and Courtney spent much of the day decreasing a 20-second gap. The 22-year-old from California caught Langvad, the 2016 world champion, with a few laps left.

She eventually opened a 48-second advantage.

The U.S. once dominated mountain biking, but the growth of the discipline in the late 1990s largely left the Americans behind. Alison Dunlap was the last to win a world championship in 2001.

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