by Our Sports Desk

OLYMPIC skeleton champion Lizzy Yarnold will miss the forthcoming World Cup campaign after announcing yesterday her decision to take a season-long break from competition.

But the 26-year-old insists the move is part of her plan to become the first slider and the first British Winter Olympian to successfully defend her title when the next Games takes place in Pyeongchang in 2018.

Yarnold is also the reigning world champion and won five out of eight races on the season-long World Cup circuit, finishing second to Austria’s Janine Flock.

Yarnold said: “I’m really pleased my coaching team and I have decided that I should remain in Britain this season.

“Coming off the back of my win in Sochi it was hard to re-motivate myself but I had the Grand Slam in my sights and wanted so desperately to be world champion that it saw me through.

“It wasn’t until I returned home that I realised I was emotionally fatigued — more than the usual end-of-season exhaustion — so I asked my team if we could approach this year differently.

“Naturally I would have loved to defend my world title this year, and it will be hard to watch others compete without me, but I really feel like this is the right time for me to refresh, take stock and come back even more motivated for the future.”

Yarnold became the second consecutive British Olympic skeleton gold medallist when she beat her rivals by almost a second to succeed 2010 champion Amy Williams.

Her move comes in the same week that 2006 silver medallist Shelley Rudman announced that she will also miss the forthcoming season after deciding to extend her maternity leave.

It means British hopes in the women’s competition are likely to rest for the time being at least with Laura Deas, who twice reached the World Cup podium last season, and Intercontinental Cup champion Donna Creighton.