Wanaka skeleton racer Katharine Eustace has won the St Moritz Europa Cup.
It is her first victory in an FIBT race and the first win for a New Zealander on the Europa Cup circuit.
Eustace won the race a week after finishing ninth at world cup races in Igls, Austria.
St Moritz is the only natural track on the tour and Eustace was racing at the home of bobsleigh and skeleton for the first time.
She said the track was "way different" from artificial tracks, being much smoother and less noisy.
"I think this helped me in my win.
I was just enjoying sliding on this track."
Eustace competed against a strong field, beating Elizabeth Yarnold (Great Britain) by 0.32sec and Jacqeline Lolling (Germany) by 0.46sec, in the two-run combined time of 2min 22.68sec.
"I just concentrated on making my runs as smooth as possible.
"I made some errors on the first run that I just focused on trying to improve for the second run.
Eustace is now facing this week's phase of World Cup competition at St Moritz with confidence.
"It will be a lot tougher though, but at least now I have had a few runs on this track."
New Zealand snowboarder Shelly Gotlieb finished third in the women's slopestyle event on the final day of the World Championships in La Molina, Spain, on Sunday.
Gotlieb qualified in ninth place for the final, which was won by world tour and junior world champion Enni Rukjarvi, of Finland.
Other New Zealanders to obtain a top 10 result were Rebecca Sinclair (fourth women's halfpipe), Stefi Luxton (seventh women's slopestyle) and Kendall Brown (10th women's slopestyle).
The New Zealand snowboard team will now turn to competitions in the United States and Canada.
