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A chance meeting on internet site Facebook took former athlete Gillian Cooke on a white-knuckle ride that culminated in her becoming a bobsleigh world champion.

In February at the American resort of Lake Placid, Cooke, a former pole vaulter and long jumper, tucked in behind driver Nicola Minichiello and hurtled down an icy chute at 140kph to claim the women's two-man bob title.

They were the first British world champions in the sport since Tony Nash and Robin Dixon achieved the feat in 1965.

From the day of her first "head-in-her-knees" run to winning gold, it took a mere four months - incredibly rapid progress in a sport dubbed Formula One on ice.

"What we have done looks like an overnight success but I actually think I've been training for bobsleigh for 20 years without even knowing it," said brakewoman Cooke, who competed as a track and field athlete for Scotland at the 2002 and 2006 Commonwealth Games.

"Having an athletic background allowed me to come in and achieve this. The Vancouver Olympics is the focus now, after that we'll see, maybe I'll even try and jump in the front seat."

Former heptathlete Minichiello, an experienced bobsledder who competed at the 2002 and 2006 Winter Olympics, came up with the Facebook idea as a way of increasing the strength in depth of the British women's team.

"I looked at events where the skills could transfer across to bobsleigh, like athletics and rugby, and then identified a set of people and tried to contact them," the part-time Sheffield sports teacher said.

"I got in touch via friends of friends on Facebook and left messages and Gill was the only one who replied."

After a week of practising push starts at a facility in York last August, she realised that Cooke had all the attributes required. The only question was how would she respond to a full-speed run at Lake Placid, one of the world's quickest tracks?

"If she liked it there she would like it anywhere," grinned Minichiello.

"I rolled Gill on the second week at Lake Placid. That's a crash, that's what it's like, get that out of the way! Then it was like 'right, you're in'.

"Gill is a phenomenal talent, she has the sprinting ability and power but it normally takes two or three years to become a top brakeman, she has done it in months. It takes a bit longer to be a driver, though."

Cooke said she had watched videos of the various tracks and tried to visualise what they would be like in the early races on the World Cup circuit in which she shared duties with Minichiello's former brakewoman Jackie Gunn, who has found herself pushed down the pecking order by the rookie.

"Certainly at the start of the season I was going down a bit blind," said Cooke. It's only now that I can see when Nic is driving well. To begin with it was a pure adrenaline rush and I had no idea what was going on."

Though the season is now over the hard work does not stop. Throughout the coming months the team members will be trying to shave hundredths of seconds off their push starts, often the difference between success and failure.

The emergence of Cooke has certainly added a competitive flavour to training camp.

"Every day counts now," said Minichiello, who has a degree in physical education. "Jackie was brilliant this year alternating some of the (World Cup) races with Gill and the girls are going to keep pushing each other."

Later this year they will head back to the tracks of Europe for training and another crack at the World Cup, then it is all eyes on Vancouver next February.

"Lake Placid used to be my favourite track but now it's Vancouver," said Minichiello. "It's the ultimate bob track, lots of short, sharp turns, by far the fastest track in the world, it's brilliant and so steep."

It is clearly not a sport for the faint-hearted and Cooke appears fearless.

"Bobsledding doesn't scare me," she said. "Vancouver is incredibly fast and you pick up speed so quickly. Corner 13 has become known as "50-50" and teams have all sorts of problems with it. I just hang on tight and hope Nic got it right."

Reuters