The double Olympic medallist came into the race as the leader at the halfway stage and turned her advantage into gold as the pair clocked a combined time of 3min 24.75sec across the four heats.

The American team ousted Olympic champion Kaillie Humphries of Canada and her brakewoman Melissa Lotholz be a narrow 0.03 second margin to top the podium.

The Canadians completed their four runs in 3:24.78, meaning they agonisingly missed out on the world title.

Jamie Greubel Poser and brakewoman Aja Evans delivered another medal for the United States as they sealed bronze in 3:24.98, 0.23 off the winning pace.

European Champion Mariama Jamanka and brakewoman Annika Drazek finished outside of the top three as they were fourth.

"I definitely thought of the Olympic final 2014 where I also was leading for three runs and lost gold in the last," said Meyers Taylor. 

"I definitely did not want to do this again. 

"Kaillie gave me a run for the money from top to the finish. 

"So I knew I had to put it together. 

"And today we did."

Humphries, gold medallist at the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics, admitted her disappointment at claiming silver.

"It’s definitely hard to lose but at the end of the day – three hundredth of a second, that’s nothing," the double world champion said. 

"So I am happy, all four runs were consistent and we improved our starts what was the goal." 

Reigning world champion Francesco Friedrich of Germany leads the way in the men's two-man bobsleigh event at the halfway stage along with brakeman Thorsten Margis.

The German pair clocked a combined time of 1:38.60 from the first two heats, allowing them to open up a 0.52 lead over the rest of the field.

Canadian duo Justin Kripps and Jesse Lumsden are second, while Johannes Lochner and Joshua Bluhm, also of Germany, follow in third.

The gold medal will be decided tomorrow with the final two heats.