Shelley Rudman became the first British woman to win the skeleton world title on Friday, when she raced to a convincing victory at St Moritz, Switzerland, ahead of Noelle Pikus-Pace of the USA and Canada's Sarah Reid. The 31-year-old, Wiltshire native set the pace with two blistering heats before comfortably protecting her lead in the third and fourth runs to finish 0.57secs ahead of 2007 world champion, Pikus-Pace while Reid was a distant 1.41secs adrift.