WILTSHIRE slider Laura Deas won her first top-level skeleton medal since securing Olympic bronze in PyeongChang last year as she claimed World Cup bronze in Canada on Saturday.

Deas, who was part of a history making British Skeleton team in South Korea 12 months ago, saved her season’s best until last in the final World Cup race of the campaign in Calgary.

With the world championships in Whistler less than two weeks away, the 30-year-old sat seventh after the first run but produced the joint quickest time in the second to medal for the first time on the World Cup circuit for more than three years.

Deas, who lives in Chippenham, said: "I'm really chuffed with bronze. It’s great to be back on a podium - it’s what I’m always aiming for and it’s a pretty special feeling.

“It's been quite a disrupted season for me, missing two races and lots of ice time due to illness and injury, so I'm really pleased to be finding some form as I head towards the Worlds.”

Welshwomen Deas, who relocated to Wiltshire to be near British Skeleton’s base at the University of Bath, also won World Cup silver at the same Calgary track in 2014 but hadn’t been on the podium since winning bronze in Lake Placid in January 2016.

“We've been up against it here with only one day of training before a double race (Calgary also hosted the rescheduled Konigssee race that had been cancelled because of the weather last month), but the whole team has pulled together really well to put in some strong performances,” said Deas.

“The last time I raced here was four years ago, so I just had to try and get everything I could out of the training day and put down the best runs I could in the race. I did that in the second run and I’m really pleased to end the World Cup on a high.”

Deas placed sixth in the first of the two back-to-back races in Calgary less than 24 hours earlier.

The British Skeleton team for the World Championships will be named early this week, with the skeleton races scheduled for March 7 and 8.