Fitaloon at MicroShaft

Gold! Stunning the first individual gold in 30 years has been won by Amy Williams. Well Done!

BBC has this:

Amy Williams won Britain’s first solo Winter Olympics gold medal for 30 years with victory in the women’s skeleton.

The Bath slider, 27, broke her own track record on the way to Team GB’s first medal of the Vancouver Games in a time of three minutes 35.64 seconds.

German Kerstin Szymkowiak was 0.56 seconds behind in silver with her team-mate Anja Huber taking bronze, while GB’s Shelley Rudman finished sixth.

Figure skater Robin Cousins won GB’s last individual gold in 1980.

Williams, who survived a protest against the legality of her helmet, held a substantial 0.30-second overnight lead after setting a track record of 53.83 seconds in her opening run on Thursday.

And she extended that lead to 0.52 seconds with a new track record of 53.68 seconds on the third of her four runs.

Canada’s pre-race favourite Mellisa Hollingsworth was in second going into the final run, but she faltered and fell away to fifth while Williams produced a solid run to hold off the German challenge and take the title.

“It’s crazy,” Williams told BBC Sport.

“I didn’t think I’d be standing here, it’s all such a blur, I can’t remember most of the last run.

“I came out at the bottom and saw our performance director Andi Schmid smiling, so I thought it must be good.

“Before the race I was okay, it was a bit weird as I was on my own in the changing room and didn’t know when to go out.

“I was a bit nervous before it but I thought I’ve got nothing to lose so I thought I’d just go out and enjoy it and it was great.”

Williams’ achievement is all the more remarkable when you consider Britain does not have a skeleton track to train on, apart from a dry starting section near Bath.

BBC Sport – Vancouver 2010 – British slider Amy Williams wins Olympic skeleton gold.