Great Britain's Amy Williams storms to Olympic skeleton gold

From Sportsbeat staff, in Whistler

 AMY Williams has become the first British woman to capture Winter Olympic individual gold for 58 years - scorching to a sublime skeleton victory at the Whistler Sliding Centre.

GOLDEN GIRL: Amy Williams becomes the first British woman to claim an Olympic individual gold for 58 years with skeleton victory (Getty Images)

The 27-year-old produced another two blitzing runs on Friday, carving a sizeable chunk off the track record she began the competition with on Thursday, before putting the finishing touches to victory with her fourth outing.

Williams is the first female Brit to top the podium since Jeannette Altwegg won skating gold at Oslo 1952 and she did so at a canter.

Indeed, Williams extended her lead on the second day of competition - the overnight attention that accompanied Great Britain's first potential Winter Olympic champion for eight years had little effect.

With a lead of 0.30 at the midway stage Williams can't have slept easy, but if she tossed and turned last night she did anything but back on the track, clocking 53.68 and 54.00 in her two runs for a combine time of 3:35.64 minutes.

"It was all a bit of a blur in the final run, I can't remember half of it but I looked up at Andi Schmid [British Skeleton performance director] and he was smiling so I thought it must have been good.

"I was bit nervous because I was the last one left in the changing room but I thought I had nothing to lose so I tried to enjoy it and, you know what, it was great."

Germany's Kerstin Szymkowiak clinched silver, 0.56 off the pace while compatriot Anja Huber collected a shock bronze as Canada's Mellisa Hollingsworth went for broke and ended up fifth.

Hollingsworth was the pre-race favourite prior to competition. Inside knowledge - having had more than ten times the number of practice runs on the track - was supposed to prove pivotal, but as Williams showed, when it comes to skeleton there is no substitute for pace.

Williams has a penchant for fast tracks and they don't come quicker than the one in Whistler - bathed in controversy after the tragic death of Georgian luger Nodar Kumaritashvili in a training accident.

The newly-crowned champion is not a household name in the UK just yet, and while that is all about to change, few should be surprised by her success.

Williams is the current world silver medallist having finished second in Lake Placid - a track not too dissimilar to Whistler's and she was second in the three of the last four training runs.  

Meanwhile, time ran out for Olympic silver medallist Shelley Rudman, who, seventh over night, clawed her way back into medal contention consistently improving her times, only to end up sixth.

Four years ago Williams was a watching reserve as Rudman sprung silver in Turin - she was a spare part and consoled herself with a spot of work for the British press.

Now she will be writing the headlines. In taking gold she has stepped out of Rudman's shadow and continued Great Britain's rich Olympic skeleton form.

Great Britain have now managed a medal at the five Winter Olympics in which skeleton has been on the programme but Williams is the first to take gold.

In doing so she becomes the first British Winter Olympic champion since Rhona Martin skipped her team of curlers to victory in 2002 and the first individual since Robin Cousins claimed the men's figure skating title in Lake Placid 30 years ago.

Williams, nicknamed Curly Wurly because of her flowing ringlets, has now secured her place in Olympic history and is just the ninth Winter Olympic gold medallist from Great Britain - her world will shortly be topsy turvy.

AS IT HAPPENS: Day eight of the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver

IN PICTURES: Williams and Montgomery claim skeleton golds