Winter Olympics: Lizzie Yarnold wins gold and retains Olympic title with sensational final run

Team GB's Lizzie Yarnold successfully defended her Winter Olympic title after winning gold with a momentous, track-record run in the women's skeleton on Saturday (17 February) as teammate Laura Deas secured a wonderful bronze on a historic day for British sport.

The 29-year-old, whose preparation for the event in Pyeongchang left a lot to be desired, managed to perform the run of her life in South Korea, beating off strong competition from Germany's Jacqueline Loelling and Canada's Janine Flock, who finished second and fourth respectively.

Yarnold, now Britain's most decorated Winter Olympian with two golds, and Deas' medals added to the bronze won by teenager Izzy Atkin in the women's ski slopestyle, making day eight in Pyeongchang the most successful in British Winter Olympic history. The aforementioned duo also kept up Britain's tradition of winning a medal in every women's skeleton event since the sport was reintroduced to the Winter Olympics in 2002.

Yarnold, tasked with defending the skeleton title she won in Sochi four years ago, was 0.002 seconds behind Flock heading into her final run but blew with away the Canadian with a time of 51.46 seconds. The 29-year-old's total time of three minutes and 27.28 seconds saw her finish almost half a second ahead of silver medallist Loelling, while a poor run from the crestfallen Flock saw Deas sneak into third.

Yarnold and Deas' phenomenal exploits helped Britain climb to 16th place in the medal table, with a number of opportunities to add to their tally still to come.