Vancouver bronze medalist Aleksandr Tretiakov has won the world skeleton championships in Switzerland’s St. Moritz, claiming the first-ever gold for Russia in the sport’s history.

The 27 year old was 0.46 seconds ahead of two-time defending champion Martins Dukurs after three runs but a poor final attempt almost cost him the gold as he edged the Latvian by only 0.03 seconds.

Another Russian Sergey Chudinov came third trailing the winner by more than 2 seconds, which was enough though to claim his first world championship medal.

Reigning Olympic champion Jon Montgomery of Canada finished seventh, trailing by more than three seconds.

Friday saw the women’s event where Britain’s Shelley Rudman dominated throughout to win gold. She held off a challenge from Noelle Pikus-Pace of the United States and Sarah Reid of Canada.

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