Scottish track athlete-come-professional tobagganist Gillian Cooke has made history by becoming the first Scottish woman to win a medal at World Cup level in bobsleigh.

Cooke, who transferred from the long-jump to the winter sport after responding to an advert on Facebook, teamed up with England’s Nicola Minichiello to claim silver in Koenigsee, Germany.

Featured in this month’s Winning Zine, (see link to the right of this article) Cooke was competing in only her third World Cup event, having been fast-tracked straight to the highest level after taking up the sport in the autumn.

Their second place was only 14/100ths of a second slower than the winners, the USA, and equal with their hosts, Germany.

The result is certainly a positive omen for the pair, who having appeared on the circuit from relative obscurity are now looking ever more capable of gaining a podium place at next year’s winter Olympics in Vancouver.

“It's nice to get there so soon, but if I stop and think about the Olympics, it's overwhelming,” Cooke told the Herald newspaper.

“Now we need to be consistently in the top three. The aim when I started was to medal at the World Championships. We're building a profile that puts us up with the other leading teams, so that when we do get to the Olympics, we can do it.”