The 32-year-old, who was leading after posting the quickest opening runs on Friday (February 24), finished fourth in both of the last two outings for a combined time of 3 min 23.48sec.

It was 0.37sec faster than nearest challenger Axel Jungk, who moved from fourth place to second with the best time in the final run and thus secured his first-ever World Championship medal in front of a home German crowd.

"I, at the same time, hate and love the Königssee track," said Dukurs, whose other World Championship gold medals were won in 2011, 2012, 2015 and 2016.

"It is very technical and you have to read it right.

"Today I was really lucky; my fourth run was especially awful.

"But that’s the past - luckily for me also the other guys made mistakes.

"Thank you to my team and all who always come and cheer for us."

Junior world champion Nikita Tregybov of Russia won bronze, 0.54 back, to make it onto the list of World Championship medallists for the first time.

His compatriot Alexander Tretiakov was in third place prior to the final run, but the Olympic champion eventually fell back into fourth.

History was made in the four-man bobsleigh event as two winners were crowned, rather than one, for the first time since the World Championships started in 1930.

Following four runs, German pilots Francesco Friedrich and Johannes Lochner ended up with exactly the same time - 3:14.10.

European champion Lochner, pushed by Matthias Kagerhuber, Joshua Bluhm and Christian Rasp, was leading after yesterday’s first two runs.

Friedrich, pushed by Candy Bauer, Martin Grothkopp and Thorsten Margis, was quickest in the third to establish a 0.01 lead but nothing could separate the two teams in the end.

"That was incredibly nerve-racking," Lochner said.

"From the second run onwards, it just went back and forth by a hundredth of a second.

"An awesome competition."

Friedrich added: "I don't really want to introduce thousandths of a second in our sport."

Another German team, made up of pilot Nico Walther, Kevin Kuske, Kevin Korona and Eric Franke, finished 0.16 behind in the bronze-medal position.

The United States’ Steven Holcomb was only 0.01 behind Walther before the final run, but he and team-mates Carlo Valdes, James Reed and Samuel McGuffie ultimately finished 0.34 back in fifth.

Defending champion Oskars Melbardis of Latvia dropped from third to fifth place during the third run and was unable to climb back up to the podium positions, despite recording the best time in the finale.

Pushed by Daumants Dreiskens, Arvis Vilkaste and Janis Strenga, he ended up 0.29 behind in fourth.