The two-time Olympic gold medallist's victory was her fourth from five classic races this season, giving her a total of 610 points at the top of the overall rankings.

The 29-year-old recorded the best time of the day in her first run at 44.064sec before following it up with a time of 44.147, giving her a total time of 1min 28.211sec.

After the race, three-time world champion Geisenberger, who is searching for a sixth World Cup crown in a row, said: "I had a tough time in practice, especially on my penultimate run when I experienced some real issues.

"But maybe it was a good thing because I then focused on those areas.

"It certainly won't have done any harm.

"It's fantastic to win on such a difficult track."

Canada's Alex Gough took her second consecutive World Cup silver medal with a total time of 1:28.315.

The Canadian was clearly pleased with the result.

"I got two good, clean runs," she said.

"I think I lost a little bit of time at the start.

"I'm still working hard to make improvements, but I can build on my result in Calgary and here."

Today also saw the sprint events take place with Austria's Wolfgang Kindl, who won silver in the classic event in Innsbruck, Austria, this season, taking gold in the men's with a time of 32.441 in front of Johannes Ludwig of Germany, who recorded a time of 32.655.

Kindl now leads the men’s singles sprint rankings with an aggregate time of 1:09.278.

US athlete Taylor Cloy Morris recorded his first ever World Cup podium finish with a time of 32.665 to claim bronze.

Dajana Eitberger of Germany took the title in the women’s sprint, and her second medal of the season following a silver in Innsbruck, in a time of 37.780.

Canadian rider Gough followed up her silver in the classic race with a silver in the sprint, recording a time of 37.823.

Geisenberger could only come third with a time of 37.829.

However, she still leads the overall sprint rankings with an aggregate time of 1:17.507.

There was more success for German athletes in the men's sprint doubles as Toni Eggert and Sascha Benecken took the gold medal in a time of 37.533.

This was their first sprint title of the season after only managing to take silver in Winterberg, Germany back in November.

This extends their lead at the top of the overall doubles rankings to 218 points.

The 2017 World Cup champions finished ahead of Austrian duo Peter Penz and Georg Fischler, who recorded a time of 37.787.

Penz and Fischler have now taken silver in each of the last four Luge World Cup doubles events.

Latvian siblings Andris and Juris Šics, who won bronze at Sochi 2014, claimed the last place on the podium in a time of 37.838.

The World Cup will now take a break over Christmas with the next event taking place in Königssee, Germany, from January 5 to 6.