Great Britain Takes Historic World Cup One - Two in St Moritz
Great Britain’s women’s skeleton team has today made history in St
Moritz by taking a first-ever one-two at a World Cup.
2006 Olympic silver medallist Shelley Rudman (30, Pewsey, Wilts) continued
her great run of recent form by taking silver after gold last week in
Konigssee.
But she was pipped to top spot by 23 year old Lizzy Yarnold (23, West
Kingsdown, Kent) in only her second World Cup race and just two weeks after
she was promoted to the World Cup circuit by the British Skeleton
Assocation.
In an event which saw the second and final run cancelled due to heavy snow,
Yarnold, starting in 14th place in the first run, set the quickest time of
the day of 1 minute 11.93 seconds overtaking Rudman’s 1minute 12.18
seconds.
Speaking after the race, a clearly delighted Yarnold said: “I am
obviously really pleased and happy with the result today and it’s
difficult to explain but I feel a sense of relief that everything I’ve
done so far has been worthwhile. I set out today to be consistent and
replicate everything that I have done in training (where she had the
fastest two times in the last two training sessions) and I achieved that
despite the weather”.
She added “It has been great working with my coach Micky Gruenberger this
week and the support he has given me. I knew the superb Blackroc sled would
provide me with the equipment I needed. ”
She finished by saying: “It all worked on the day”
Mark Wood who had coached Yarnold from the time she joined the British
Skeleton development programmethrough UK Sport’s Girls4Gold initiative,
until she moved up to the World Cup Circuit two weeks ago commented that he
was “very proud of the result today”.
The win builds on the Great Britain Team’s successes since the start of
the year with Rudman climbing to number two in the World Rankings just 23
points behind the current leader Marion Thees of Germany. Yarnold’s win
today moves her up three places to 11th overall.
Yarnold now moves to Igls, Austria, for the World Junior Championships
where she won silver last year when they were staged in Park City, Utah,
before joining Rudman and the World Cup team in North America for the final
two World Cup Races of the 8-Race Series.
Issue Date: 2012-01-20
