Surprise silver for Shelley as Pedersen strikes gold

SHELLEY RUDMAN surged to an Olympic silver medal in her first full season last night with a sensational second run in the women’s skeleton at Cesana Pariol.

The 24-year-old Wiltshire girl produced the performance of her life to make up two places and more than a quarter-of-a-second on her two closest rivals.

Rudman, who was fastest in Wednesday’s final practice session, had finished the first run in fourth place but responded with a faultless performance to move into the medals.

Switzerland’s Maya Pedersen was fastest in each of the two runs to grab gold, while Mellisa Hollingsworth-Richards of Canada held her first run place of third.

Rudman’s medal was Britain’s first of the Winter Games and followed fellow Wiltshire girl Alex Coomber’s bronze in the same competition in Salt Lake City four years ago.

But, while Coomber had been widely expected to strike gold, Rudman was considered an outside chance at best having never previously reached the podium in her World Cup career.

World champion Seth Wescott claimed the first Olympic Snowboard Cross title in thrilling fashion from Slovak Radoslav Zidek at Bardonecchia.

Wescott stormed back from third place after the qualification run to fully justify his status as favourite, but only after a head-to-head battle with the rank outsider.

Zidek came from nowhere to grab silver having been 21st in the world rankings and with a World Cup best of fifth last September.

Frenchman Paul-Henri Delerue took bronze, while the fastest qualifier, Canadian Drew Neilson, fell in the first heat of the quarter-finals.

Florence Baverel-Robert of France was a surprise winner of the women’s biathlon 7.5km sprint, perfect shooting moving her past the German and Russian favourites.

Baverel-Robert took advantage of favourable weather conditions to beat Swede Anna Olofsson into second place, with Lilla Efremova of the Ukraine third.

Mario Stecher overcame a 20 second deficit on the final leg of the 4x5km cross country relay to win Austria their first ever gold in the Nordic Combined team event.

Germany started ten seconds ahead following the ski jumping phase and Bjoern Kircheisen extended that advantage on the first leg, but the lead was gradually whittled away and Jens Gaiser capitulated. Finland usurped Russia in the cross country to win bronze.

In Nordic Skiing, Estonia’s Kristina Smigun followed on from her pursuit victory on Sunday by winning her second gold in the 10km classical race.

She produced a storming finish to win in 27:51.4, over 21 seconds ahead of Marit Bjorgen.

The Norwegian favourite recovered from a stomach bug to edge 41-year-old compatriot Hilde Pedersen into third by just over a second.