Shelley wins World Cup Gold at Igls

12/12/2008

Olympic Winter Games silver medallist Shelley Rudman won Britain's first medal of the 2008/9 Skeleton World Cup campaign by taking gold at the Igls track in Austria.

Rudman was lying second to British team-mate Amy Williams after the first of her two runs, but produced the fastest time of the day on her second run, breaking the track record on the 1976 Olympic track in the process. She then had to wait with baited breath to see how the final competitor, Amy Williams, fared.

Williams made a fast start and was ahead on the opening stages of the track, but she lost some speed after a slight mistake on corner nine, which meant she finished just outside the medals in fourth. That was her highest finish of the season to date.

"It was absolutely great today," said GB performance director Andy Schmid after watching two of his athletes finish in the top-four. "It was an amazing result for Shelley, and Amy would have been very close if she hadn't made a little mistake on corner nine."

Williams remains above Rudman in the overall rankings after three of the eight rounds of the 2008/9 World Cup. Williams is fourth and Rudman fifth.

Results to women's World Cup round 3

Gold: SHELLEY RUDMAN (GBR) - 1:49.75
Silver: Kerstin Szymkowiak (GER) - 1:49.83
Bronze: Svetlana Trunova (RUS) - 1:50.00
4th: AMY WILLIAMS (GBR) - 1:50.06

Overall rankings after 3 of 8 World Cup rounds

1st: Kerstin Szymkowiak (GER) 630 points
2nd: Anja Huber (GER) 586 points
3rd: Katie Uhlaender (USA) 568 points
4th: AMY WILLIAMS (GBR) 544 points
5th: SHELLEY RUDMAN (GBR) 537 points