SHELLEY Rudman reached the halfway point of her Olympic skeleton bob bid in an upbeat mood - but counting the cost of a poor first run at Whistler Sliding Centre.

The Pewsey slider, 28, finished day one of the two-day competition in joint seventh position as Great Britain teammate Amy Williams, from Bath, claimed the halfway lead after a brilliant opening slide.

While Rudman's hopes of Olympic gold faded after a disappointing first run, she at least kept herself in with a chance of a place on the podium after a much tidier second attempt.

The 2006 Olympic silver medallist, was down in a disappointing 11th position after the opening round, .83 of a second behind Williams, who set a superb new track record of 53.83 to lead by almost a third of a second.

With the first run delayed by around an hour because track temperatures were too high, Rudman went off second behind World Cup winner and pre-event favourite Mellisa Hollingsworth, and clocked 54.66 immediately putting her behind her close rival from the host nation.

But needing a much-improved performance to get herself back towards the top of the 20-man field, Rudman pulled it out in the second, clocking 54.26.

Rudman said: "I thought in my mind (of the first run), what a terrible run. It couldn't hae been worse.

"It was nice to make it a little bit better on the second run but I just didn't slide how I usually slide on that first run.

"I'm not making any excuses and I still need to improve a lot more to try and get in the mix.

"I definitely need to pick up more.

"It's not one of my favourite tracks, I'll be honest, but I need to just try and work it now and try to keep moving up spot by spot.

"I'm really pleased with my starts. They were the things I was most worried about, whether I would be able to keep up with the top girls, but they're great.''

Of teammate Williams' performance, she said: "She's doing really well isn't she? She's put out some really fantastic runs and I'm really pleased for her.

"When you've had a really good run like that you just want to be consistent and not get worse, hopefully get better.''

Hollingsworth, who had set a new track record during practice earlier this week, set a new mark again as she opened the competition with 54.18.

However, that proved only good enough for fifth place at the end of the opening phase as Williams put in a stunning performance to soar into the lead.

Williams clocked 54.13 in her second run, maintaining a comfortable advantage of .32 of a second over Germany's Kerstin Szymkowiak and Hollingsworth, who was in third, .48 of a second and four places in front of Rudman.

The third and fourth runs take place later this evening to decide the medals.

UPDATES ON SHELLEY'S THIRD AND FOURTH RUNS LATER TONIGHT AT GAZETTEANDHERALD.CO.UK