Walther and his team mates, Andreas Bredau, Marko Hübenbecker and Christian Poser, registered a time of 1 min 48.11sec to finish 0.04 ahead of Latvia's Olympic silver medallists Oskars Melbārdis, Daumants Dreiskens, Arvis Vilkaste and Janis Strenga.

They were 0.67 clear of Switzerland's Rico Peter, Bror van der Zijde, Thomas Amrhein and Simon Friedli in third.

The win capped off a memorable weekend for Walther, who secured his first-ever podium finish alongside Joshua Bluhm in the two-man event yesterday.

"It's unbelievable to get on the podium twice in my first World Cup here," Walther said afterwards.

Latvia's Olympic silver-medal winning four-man bobsleigh team, led by Oskars Melbārdis (left), finished second in Altenberg, Germany ©Getty Images




Debutant bobsleigh pilot Maxim Andrianov of Russia finished in eighth position, flanked by Pavel Utkin, Kirill Antukh and Aleksey Zaytsev.

Melbārdis is the new outright leader in the overall World Cup standings with 635 points after the third of eight rounds.

Russia's Alexander Kasjanov, who finished fifth in Altenberg, is second with 554 points, while Switzerland's Peter is third with 520 points after claiming his first-ever World Cup podium finish.

The next four-man bobsleigh World Cup event is scheduled to take place in Königssee, Germany on January 18.

Contact the writer of this story at [email protected]


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