SHELLEY Rudman stormed to her first FIBT Skeleton World Cup victory of the season in Germany today.

The 30-year-old Pewsey slider destroyed the rest of the field in Winterberg, her combined winning time from two runs being nearly a second quicker than her nearest rival.

Rudman quickly seized command in the opening run, her super-fast 58.06 being more than half a second clear than Germany's Anja Huber.

Despite clocking a slightly slower second run of 58.24 for combined 1:56.30, it was easily enough to finish 0.99 of a second ahead of Huber, with Noelle Pikus-Pace, of the United States third and Rudman's British compatriot Lizzy Yarnold fourth.

Rudman said on Twitter: "Just won the Winterberg World cup and set a new track record by half a second!! woo hoo! :)).

"Great day at the office for me & everything just fell into place at the right time.''

The 2006 Olympic silver medallist hadn't finished on the podium in the first three rounds of the season in the USA and Canada as she recovered from an early-season hamstring victory and adapted to changes she had worked on in the summer.

But today's victory, her first since triumphing at Königssee, in Germany, in January, reignites her bid to successfully defend the overall World Cup title she won for the first time last season.

Rudman, who also won at Winterberg in the 2010-11 season, also became the only slider in either gender to have won at least one World Cup race in each of the last five seasons.

It was also the biggest margin in a women's World Cup since 2003.

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