Hollingsworth (centre) shone in the second run to claim the honours

Britain's Shelley Rudman continued her preparations for the Winter Olympics next month with third place in the World Cup skeleton race in Germany.

The 28-year-old lies in second place in the standings after finishing 0.47 of a second behind World Cup leader Mellisa Hollingsworth of Canada.

At Konigssee, the world's oldest artificial track, she set a second run for her second victory of the season.

Hollingsworth clocked one minute 38.26 and leads the standings by 49 points.

It was Sheffield-based Rudman's third medal in recent times following her silver at Lake Placid in the USA in November and gold at Cessana in Italy last month.

Britain's Amy Williams finished 12th, despite producing the two quickest starts of the day.

Thirteenth after the first run, her second was the seventh fastest, but could not earn a top-10 finish. She remains fifth in the overall world rankings.

Hollingsworth's second run time of 48.78 seconds eclipsed the previous best of 49.21 set three years ago by Anja Huber of Germany, who finished fifth on Friday.

Kerstin Szymkowiak of Germany had led after the first run but had to settle for second, 0.24 of a second adrift.

Hollingsworth, who has now five podium finishes in this campaign, leads the World Cup with 1,236 points, Rudman has 1,187 and Szymkowiak is third on 1,164.

In the men's race, Britain's Kristan Bromley missed out on a medal by just four-hundredths of a second.

Bromley was fourth after the first of two runs and ended the day fourth just 0.04 seconds behind bronze medallist Frank Rommel of Germany.

Latvia's Martins Dukurs captured the gold, his third victory of the season, to extend his lead at the top of the overall world rankings, with Britain's Andy Wood finishing 15th.

Meanwhile, British sliders gained further valuable world rankings points and a brace of medals in the Intercontinental Cup in Lake Placid, USA.

Ant Sawyer took silver in the men's race, climbing from fifth after the first of two runs. Adam Pengilly finished just outside the medals in fourth, while Chris Type was joint sixth.

Donna Creighton took bronze in the women's race, with Sarah Sydney 18th.

The World Cup action now moves on to St Moritz, Switzerland on Friday 15th January, with the Intercontinental Cup heading to Calgary in Canada for races on Thursday 14th and Friday 15th January.

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