Gold for Shelley at Cessana World Cup

05/12/2009

Britain’s Shelley Rudman returned to the scene of her 2006 Olympic Winter Games skeleton silver medal winning performance to capture World Cup gold today (Friday).

The 28-year-old won gold at Cesana in round three of the 2009/10 Skeleton World Cup – the same track on which she won the silver medal at the Torino Olympic Winter Games in 2006.

It is the third World Cup gold of Rudman’s career and her second medal of the season, following her silver in Lake Placid in the USA two weeks ago.

Rudman now leads the world rankings, with team-mate Amy Williams in fifth.

Rudman was in stunning form as she dominated the competition in Italy today, setting a track record on her second of two runs.

She opened up a lead of almost a quarter of a second over Marion Trott, Germany’s reigning World Champion and winner of the overall 2008/9 World Cup, on her first run.

Her time of 58.75 seconds was 0.23 seconds ahead of that of Trott’s. Rudman was even faster on the second run, clocking a track record of 58.71 seconds to make sure of gold. She beat Trott into second place by 0.35 seconds.

Andi Schmid, British Skeleton performance director, said: “It was a great result today for Shelley – we’re always pleased with gold medals. To come away with a track record as well was incredible.”

Williams ended the day in 10th while Donna Creighton came 16th. She again demonstrated her impressive starts, producing the only sub-five second start of each run.

Earlier today the British men missed out on the medals.

Double Olympian Kristan Bromley was the highest placed Brit in the men’s race, also at Cesana, finishing 16th. He was fifth after the first run, but came out of the start grooves at the beginning of the second run. He remains the highest place Briton in the overall FIBT world rankings in ninth.

Adam Pengilly finished 17th, his highest placing of the season. He had been 13th after the first run, while Andy Wood finished 21st.

Canada’s Jon Montgomery took gold with a 0.47 seconds victory over Martins Dukurs of Latvia, who still tops the world rankings after three races.

The fourth round of the World Cup takes place at Winterberg in Germany next Friday (11th December).

The season reaches its climax with the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games in February.

Cesena World Cup – women’s results
Gold: Shelley Rudman (GBR) - 1:57.46
Silver: Marion Trott (GER)_ - 1:57.81
Bronze: Mellisa Hollingsworth (CAN) – 1:58.13
10th: Amy Williams (GBR) – 1:59.47
16th: Donna Creighton (GBR) – 2:00.59

Overall FIBT world rankings
1. Shelley Rudman (GBR) – 627
2. Mellisa Hollingsworth (CAN) - 625
3. Amy Gough (CAN) - 554
5. Amy Williams (GBR) - 512
15. Donna Creighton (GBR) - 322
40. Sarah Sydney (GBR) - 145
52. Maggie Davies (GBR) - 105

Cesana World Cup – men’s results
Gold: Jon Montgomery (CAN) – 1:55.54
Silver: Martins Dukurs (LAT) – 1:56.01
Bronze: Jeff Pain (CAN) – 1:56.05
16th: Kristan Bromley (GBR) – 1:57.20
17th: Adam Pengilly (GBR) – 1:57.24
21st: Andy Wood (GBR) – 59.34 (1 run only)

Overall FIBT world rankings
1: Martins Dukurs (LAT) – 635
2: Sandro Stielicke (GER) – 604
3: Frank Rommel (GER) - 601
9: Kristan Bromley (GBR) – 448
18: Chris Type (GBR) - 265
23: Dave Swift (GBR) – 240
29: Andy Wood (GBR) 192
40: Ant Sawyer (GBR) – 155
47: Adam Pengilly (GBR) – 133