The 37-year-old had a storming first run to give himself a comfortable margin of error for run two - which he further excelled on, winning by a margin of 0.79sec.

Dukurs' victory prevented an unlikely win for Germany's Alexander Gassner, who recovered from a poor first run which left him in ninth to hold the gold-medal position at one point.

Gassner's second-run time was the fastest in the field until Latvia's Dukurs took to the track.

Gassner's team mate Felix Keisinger looked to have him beaten, but a small error at the end of the second run saw the pair finish with the same time and share the silver medal.

The winner's older brother, 40-year-old Tomass, was second after the first run but ended up finishing fourth, just ahead of Britain's Matt Weston and Craig Thompson.

Russia's Nikita Tregubov and Alexander Tretiakov sandwiched Britain's Marcus Wyatt for places seven to nine, while Italy's Mattia Gaspari rounded off the top 10.

Dukurs led the overall World Cup standings last season and won his 11th European title at this venue earlier in 2020.

The Latvian is also a six-time world champion and two-time Olympic medallist.

In the women's skeleton competition, Janine Flock of Austria became the first event winner of the 2020-2021 IBSF World Cup season despite this being only her second race at the Sigulda track.

Having finished as runner-up in last season's overall World Cup standings, Flock set a new track record of 51.49 on her first run.

Flock went on to win the event, finishing 0.83 clear of Kimberley Bos after two runs.

Bos, from The Netherlands, celebrated her best World Cup finish to date.

The Dutchwoman's only previous podium finish was back in 2017 - third place in Pyeongchang in South Korea.

Debutant Endija Terauda of Latvia won the bronze medal after finishing 1.40 off the pace of Flock.

Having finished as the runner-up in the IBSF Europa Cup last season, Terauda held off Anna Fernstädt of the Czech Republic by just 0.01 to complete the podium.

World champion Tina Hermann of Germany finished seventh, ahead of her team mate and crystal globe holder Jacqueline Lölling in eighth.

European champion Elena Nikitina of Russia was ninth.

Britain's Laura Deas, who won Olympic bronze at Pyeongchang 2018, came sixth - her best World Cup finish since Calgary in February 2019.

The athletes will stay in Sigulda for another World Cup leg next week, while bobsleigh competition begins tomorrow.