They became the first gold medallists from Britain since Anthony Nash and Robin Dixon at St Moritz in Switzerland in 1965.

The pair had been second at the halfway mark overnight after two of the four runs that make up the World Championships - four-hundredths of a second behind leaders Shauna Rohbock and Elana Meyers of the United States.

But the Britons produced an outstanding third run to head the field and followed that up with another solid performance on the fourth and final run to capture the world crown.

Their first and second runs yesterday were both the second fastest in the field and their third and fourth runs today were the fastest third and fourth runs of the competition.

Minicheillo, the driver and a world silver medallist four years ago with Jackie Gunn, advertised on Facebook for a new breakman with an athletics background at the end of last summer and Cooke - who has competed for Scotland at the Commonwealth Games in pole vault and long jump - answered the call.

The 26-year-old Scot said: "I never imagined I'd be going for a medal in bobsleigh."

Minicheillo, a former heptathlete, said: "It's fantastic.

"It's great for my country.

"I'm so glad.

"I really felt going into here that this track is such a magical track that it could have been anybody's day, and it was."

It wrapped up an outstanding season for the Britons - with less than a year to go to the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games.

Minichiello, who does some of her training at the University of Bath, finished the World Cup series in third place overall, winning a silver and two bronzes in the eight race series.

She also won bronze at the European Championships.