Winter Sports: Back-to-back skeleton wins edge Rudman closer to world crown

Shelley Rudman claimed her second consecutive World Cup victory in St Moritz yesterday to boost her chances of being crowned overall women's skeleton world champion in Cesana next week.

Rudman took the title race down to the wire as she triumphed by 0.24 seconds over Canada's Mellisa Hollingsworth with overall World Cup leader Anja Huber back in third.

Rudman's win means a third straight victory in the final race of the regular season in Cesana will be enough to guarantee her first world title after two consecutive second-place finishes.

"The most important thing was to give myself a fighting chance going to the final race next week," Rudman said. "And my win today means it's going to go right down to the wire. I've had chances going into the final race of the season in each of the last two years but it hasn't quite been enough. I hope with lots of work and the benefit of my experience it will pay off this time."

Britain's Amy Williams was 10th in her third race back after her post-Vancouver lay-off, while Donna Creighton was 20th. In the men's race Chris Type was ninth and Rudman's fiance Kristan Bromley 14th on his return from injury.