Britain’s Shelley Rudman faces a last-gasp battle to win her first Skeleton World Cup series title in Park City, the USA tonight (Thursday) – one year to the day to the start of the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games.
The Torino 2006 Olympic Winter Games silver medallist led the 2008/9 World Cup series going into last night’s penultimate round at Park City.
But while Rudman finished eighth, Germany’s Marion Trott took the silver medal, to leapfrog her and go to the top of the World Cup rankings.
Rudman, who has two wins and a second place to her name this season, goes into tonight’s final race of the series in second overall as the 2008/9 World Cup reaches its climax.
The 27-year-old, who captured the European Championship in St Moritz, Switzerland last month, is in her first full World Cup season back in action since the birth of her daughter.
British team-mate Amy Williams produced another good performance to finish sixth last night.
The Bath-based slider followed up her best World Cup performance yet in Vancouver last week – when she captured silver on the 2010 Olympic Winter Games track – with another strong performance in Park City. It means she remains fifth in the overall World Cup rankings.
Williams started her campaign in Park City well, finishing second in the first of two runs, but dropped down the field after the second run.
Just 0.43 seconds separated the top six athletes over two runs in Park City.
Last night’s race, race seven of eight in the series, was arranged to replace the event that was cancelled in Cesana, Italy earlier this season.
The final round of the men’s Skeleton World Cup gets underway at 4pm GMT today (Thursday), with the final women’s race starting at 8pm GMT.
Results to round 7 of World Cup
Gold: Melissa Hollingsworth (CAN) – 1:41.62
Silver: Marion Trott (GER) – 1:41.83
Bronze: Noelle Pikus-Pace (USA) – 1:41.89
6th: AMY WILLIAMS (GBR) - 1:42.05
8th: SHELLEY RUDMAN (GBR) - 1:42.24
World Cup standings after 7 or 8 rounds
1st: Marion Trott (GER) – 1347 pts
2nd: SHELLEY RUDMAN (GBR) – 1308 pts
3rd: Anja Huber (GER) – 1275 pts
5th: AMY WILLIAMS (GBR) – 1210 pts
Great Britain has an impressive track record in the sport of bob skeleton. British sliders have won medals at the last two Olympic Winter Games - Alex Coomber won bronze at the 2002 Olympic Winter Games in Salt Lake City and Shelley Rudman won silver at the 2006 Games in Torino.
Britain’s Kristan Bromley dominated the 2007/8 season, completing a hat-trick by winning the World Championships, the World Cup series and the European Championships. Bromley also won the World Cup series in 2003/4 and the European Championships in the 2003/4 and 2004/5 season, while Rudman captured the European Championship title St Moritz in 2009.
