Yarnold returned to the Sanki Sliding Center, where 12 months ago she had become the second British woman in a row to win the Olympic skeleton title, to relive her greatest moment. 

It failed to win her the overall World Cup title, though, as she had to settle for being runner-up with Austria's Janine Flock claiming the victory. 

The Briton finished 0.04 seconds ahead of Russia's Maria Orlova, crossing the line in 1min 56.57sec to clinch her fourth win of the season, while Germany's Anja Huber Selbach took third.

Appropriately on Valentine's Day, Yarnold's victory continues the love affair she seems to have with the track in the Russian city, although she narrowly missed out on the overall title, even though Flock could finish only fourth today. 

"I do love this track and I've done quite a lot of runs here as we did 40 before the Olympics, and even though I made a lot of mistakes I'm just able to relax and enjoy the track," Yarnold said.

"I knew it would be a close race - I'm glad I gave everyone a heart attack - but what a good competition between all three of us [on the podium] and big congratulations to Janine who won the overall World Cup title, she deserves it."

The victory rounded off a superb week for the 26-year-old, who won the preceding World Cup event in Igls, Austria, last week before she added the European title to her Olympic crown 24 hours later.

Austria's Janine Flock claimed overall World Cup gold by virtue of her fourth place finish in the final World Cup event in Sochi ©Getty Images



Yarnold finished just 20 points off the top of the overall standings, and she perhaps would have enjoyed a clean sweep of the skeleton titles had she been able to compete at the second World Cup event in Calgary, back in December, which she missed due to dizziness.

German Tina Hermman took overall bronze, while Britain's success in skeleton continued as Laura Deas was fifth and teammate Rose McGrandle was seventh.

With the World Cup season now completed, attention turns to the Bobsleigh and Skeleton World Championships, which are due to begin in the German resort of Winterberg on February 23.

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