Creighton fourth at Cesana Skeleton World Cup as Rudman finishes second in overall 2010/11 World Cup series
Creighton fourth at Cesana Skeleton World Cup as Rudman finishes second in overall 2010/11 World Cup series
Britain¹s Donna Creighton equalled the best performance of her career to date by finishing fourth in the FIBT Skeleton World Cup competition in Italy, while team-mate Shelley Rudman finished as runner-up in the overall 2010/11 World Cup series.
Both Rudman and Amy Williams joined Creighton in securing top-10 places at the Cesana track today (Friday), finishing seventh and eighth respectively.
But it was 25-year-old Somerset slider Creighton who rounded off an impressive campaign the way she started it her fourth place in Cesana equalled her result at the opening World Cup of the year at the Whistler track in Canada in November.
³It¹s an exciting result for Donna,² said Andi Schmid, British Skeleton¹s Performance Director. ³What was really exciting was that she had the fastest push and the third fastest finishing time on the second run behind Marion Thees and Anja Huber.
³To have three girls in the top-eight here was the second best team performance after Germany,² he added.
Rudman had gone into today¹s eighth and final round of the World Cup in second place in the overall rankings behind Germany¹s Huber, but Rudman was also battling against the effects of a fever and chest infection that forced her to miss yesterday¹s final day of training.
Huber followed up his sizzling performances in training to strike gold today and make sure she won the overall FIBT Skeleton World Cup series, leaving Rudman having to settle for runners-up spot for the third year in succession.
Rudman had led the challenge for the Brits in the first run of the day, with the fourth fastest time, while Creighton was eighth and the halfway mark and Williams, the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games gold medallist, in 11th.
But Rudman couldn¹t match her opening performance on the second run and slipped three places down the field. Williams, meanwhile, climbed to finish eighth in only her fourth World Cup race of the season.
Round 8 Skeleton World Cup results - women Gold: Anja Huber (GER) 1:56.71 Silver: Marion Thees (GER) 1:56.77 Bronze: Darla Deschamps (CAN) 1:57.07 4th: Donna Creighton (GBR) 1:57.59 7th: Shelley Rudman (GBR) 1:58.07 8th: Amy Williams (GBR) 1:58.33
Final 2010/11 World Cup standings women 1st: Anja Huber (GER) 1710 pts 2nd: Shelley Rudman (GBR) 1642 pts 3rd: Melissa Hollingsworth (CAN) 1516 pts 6th: Donna Creighton (GBR) 1300 pts 17th: Amy Williams (GBR) 616 pts
