Melbardis wins first ever World Championship gold

Melbardis Daumants Dreiskens, Arvis Vilkaste and Janis Strenga found themselves sat seventh after Saturday's opening two heats.

However, those ahead of them faltered 24 hours later – including Lamin Deen of Great Britain as a crash in the third run saw the quarter, who were sat fourth after Saturdau, finish 22nd.

But Melbardis and co posted the fastest third and fourth runs to take the victory in a combined time of 3:24.27 minutes.

German Francesco Friedrich, who won the two-man competition last week, led after winning both heats on the opening day but lost his 0.41-second advantage over Melbardis by coming fourth and fifth, respectively, on Sunday.

That meant the German quartet had to settle for silver, just 0.04 seconds further back, while Rico Peter of Switzerland finished 0.22 behind to take bronze.

Meanwhile, two-time defending champion Maximilian Arndt of Germany was 0.49 off the pace in seventh.

Sportsbeat 2016