Friedrich and Margis hold healthy advantage at half-way stage of two-man World Championships

The German duo, who have won the title together for the last two seasons, could not have asked for a better start to their 2017 campaign with fastest runs of 49.15 and 49.95 putting them 0.52 seconds clear of the rest of the field.

Canadians Justin Kripps and Jesse Lumsden lay second after recording the second fastest times of the day while Germany's Johannes Lochner and Joshua Bluhm are a further 0.11 seconds back in third.

The battle for the medals looks set to be a close one when the final two runs are contested on Sunday with just three tenths separating those sleds in third and tenth.

Among those in the mix are Great Britain's Bruce Tasker and Joel Fearon who currently sit eighth after jumping three spots after run 2.

They are looking to beat their historic fourth-place finish achieved in Igls last year, which was Great Britain's best 2-man World Championship result for 50 years.

"It's similar to what happened last year," said Fearon. "We moved up the leaderboard at the Olympics in Sochi in the 4-man and in Igls in the 2-man in 2016. We prefer to be the hunters so we're happy with how the day has gone." Sportsbeat 2017