Yarnold, from West Kingsdown, Kent, was promoted to the World Cup circuit by the British Skeleton Assocation, but she excelled at the classic venue to finish ahead of Shelley Rudman, Britain's 2006 Olympic silver medallist.

The 30-year-old is in a rich seam of form, having taken gold the previous week in Konigsee.

In an event which saw the second and final run cancelled due to heavy snow, Yarnold, starting in 14th place in the first run, set the quickest time of the day of 1min 11.93sec overtaking Rudman's 1minute :12.18.

"I am obviously really pleased and happy with the result today and it's difficult to explain but I feel a sense of relief that everything I've done so far has been worthwhile," said Yarnold (pictured).


"I set out today to be consistent and replicate everything that I have done in training [where she had the fastest two times in the last two training sessions] and I achieved that despite the weather.

"It has been great working with my coach Micky Gruenberger this week and the support he has given me. I knew the superb Blackroc sled would provide me with the equipment I needed. "

Yarnold's coach Mark Wood, who has seen her through the British Skeleton development programme, described himself as being "very proud" of her achievement.

The win builds on the Great Britain Team's successes since the start of the year with Rudman climbing to number two in the world rankings just 23 points behind the current leader Marion Thees of Germany.

Yarnold's win today moves her up three places to 11th overall.

Yarnold now moves to Igls, Austria, for the World Junior Championships where she won silver last year when they were staged in Park City, Utah, before joining Rudman and the World Cup team in North America for the final two World Cup Races of the eight race series.

Contact the writer of this story at [email protected]