Lizzy Yarnold wins fourth World Cup gold of the season

Lizzy Yarnold won the season's final skeleton World Cup event on the same Sochi track where she claimed Olympic gold on this day a year ago.

The Briton finished 0:04 of a second ahead of Russia's Maria Orlova with a time of one minute 56.57 seconds.

Yarnold, 26, finished the World Cup season second overall behind Janine Flock of Austria, fourth in Sochi.

It was European champion Yarnold's fourth World Cup win of the season, having missed the race in Calgary.

"I do love this track, I've done a lot of runs here as we had 40 runs here before the Olympics," said the 26-year-old.

"Even though I made a lot of mistakes I was able to relax and enjoy the track."

In first place ahead of Germany's Tina Hermann by 0.45 after her first slide on the Sanki track, Yarnold edged out Orlova following an excellent second run by the Russian.

Yarnold finished the World Cup on 1511 points, 20 behind Flock, having missed the second of the season's eight races, in Calgary, due to dizziness.

Her victory concluded a fine week for Yarnold, who won the preceding World Cup event in Igles, Austria, on the previous Saturday and the European Championships on the same track 24 hours later.

Fellow Britons Laura Deas and Rose McGrandle finished the Sochi event in ninth and 11th place respectively.

With the World Cup season over, interest will now shift to the Bobsleigh and Skeleton World Championships, which begin in Winterberg, Germany, on 23 February.