Scottish brakeman Gillian Cooke and her driver Nicola Minniciello made history yesterday by becoming the first British women to take gold at the Bobsleigh World Championships.

The duo displayed consistency throughout their four runs to finish 0.38 seconds ahead of their US counterparts to secure gold in at Lake Placid in New York.

Cooke and Minniciello capped off an impressive season in which they managed three podium places in the World Cup campaign, finishing third overall.

Speaking exclusively to In The Winning Zone from her hotel room in Lake Placid, Gillian Cooke was finding it hard to take in. The Edinburgh-based athlete has gone from being a beginner in the sport to a world champion in only four months.

“It feels incredible, I’m still trying to take it in. It’s been a wonderful season, better than I could ever have hoped for and to win the World’s is just unbelievable.”

In an interview with The Winning Zine late last year, Cooke admitted that an aim for the season was to medal in the World Championships. There is no doubt she has achieved that goal and she is finding it hard to come to terms with her new ‘world champion’ tag.

“We were sitting at dinner last night trying to decide how it feels to be world champion,” she said.

Cooke has competed at the highest level in a number of different sports but she admits that nothing compares to her latest achievement. “The past two or three days have been filled with so many different emotions, nothing I’ve ever done before comes close to matching those feelings.”

Looking ahead, Cooke will return to Scotland and get back into training for the summer. The next focus for the Edinburgh athlete is the Winter Olympics in Vancouver next year, and she admits that there is an air of confidence surrounding the team after their impressive success.

“Now we know how to win, we know exactly the state of mind we need to be in to hold it together over four runs, consistency is key and we were definitely the most consistent team on the track this week”