Montgomery and Williams take skeleton golds

By John Bagratuni Feb 20, 2010, 6:16 GMT

Whistler, Canada - Canada's Jon Montgomery came from behind to win men's skeleton Olympic gold while Amy Williams of Britain led from start to finish in the women's event on Friday.

Montgomery, 30, reversed an overnight deficit of 0.26 seconds on latvian Martins Dukurs in the third and fourth run to win in a combined total 3 minutes 29.73 seconds from four runs.

The World Cup champion Dukurs led the first three runs, but had to settle for silver in 3:29.80. Alexander Tretyakov took bronze in 3:30.75 minutes for Russia's first medal in the sport.

'This is the best day of my life so far and hopefully I have more to come,' said Montgomery who celebrated his biggest career moment wildly.

Montgomery gave Canada its second straight men's skeleton gold, with Duff Gibson winning in 2006.

Montgomery set a track record 52.20 seconds as he made up eight hundredth on Dukurs in the third run for an 0.18-seconds deficit into the final run in which he was also all but spotless.

Competing as the last slider, Dukurs led by 0.23 seconds overall more than halfway down the course. But the lead was down to eight hundredth at the final split and Dukurs' fate was sealed when he hit the wall hard after the last turn.

'I started to realise when Martins went late into (turn) nine, and bit by bit the minus numbers went down,' said Montgomery.

Dukurs conceded that the final turn was just not to his liking but that he was still happy despite losing gold.

'All training long I was fighting this curve, I was losing a tenth every time,' he said. 'I am a bit disappointed with my last run but not with the result.I was thinking top three would be great and I did that.'

Williams, 27, was in a world of her own in the women's event she won in 3:35.64 minutes.

Germany's Kerstin Szymkowiak took silver in 3:36.20 minutes and her room-mate Anja Huber snatched the bronze in 3:36.36 after Canadian Melissa Hollingsworth slumped from second to fifth place in the final run.

'I can't believe it is actually happening right now. I feel like I am in a little bubble and I don't know if it is at all real,' said Williams.

Williams was in command from the start. She set a track record 53.83 seconds in the first run on Thursday and then lowered the mark to 53.68 seconds in the third run on Friday en route to victory.

Williams is the first Winter Games individual gold medallist for Britain since Robin Cousins won men's figure skating 1980 in Lake Placid.

Her victory also maintained Britain's record as the only nation to have won a skeleton medal at every Olympics the sport featured (1928, 1948, since 2002).

The US led a six-team protest against the design of Williams's helmet on Thursday, but that was dismissed by the ruling body FIBT.

'I know everything is checked by the jury, the same as everyone. Everyone likes to play games,' said Williams.