On home ice Thomas Steu and Lorenz Koller secured gold after posting runs of 39.615secs and 39.638 to give them a combined time of 1min 19.253sec.

Fellow Austrians Yannick Mueller and Armin Frauscher secured silver after posting runs of 39.785 and 39.693 to give them a combined time of 1:19.478.

Bronze went to the German pairing of Toni Eggert and Sascha Benecken who posted runs of 39.741 and 39.792 to give them a total time of 1:19.533.

Steu and Koller were unsure about their participation in the opening World Cup event of the season as they suffered respective injuries to their tibia and calf bones during training in Sigulda in January.

Steu said he was extremely proud of the success of him and his partner, their fifth in World Cup races, describing it as "a great day."

The pair posted the two fastest times of the day and Steu added he "didn't think that it would work out so well right away."

Bronze medallists Eggert and Benecken also had to overcome injury concerns to make the start line at the Olympic Sliding Centre with co-pilot Benecken requiring several hours of physiotherapy treatment on his neck before the event after a crash where he injured his cervical spine.

The world champions were left to reflect on a mistake where they drifted violently through the starting corner but pilot Eggert said: "That was a bit over the limit, but these are mistakes that happen."

In the men's singles discipline Germany's Felix Loch produced a dominant display posting the fastest times in both runs on the way to victory.

Loch posted runs of 50.056 and 49.885 on his way to a combined time of 1:39.941, enough to give him his 40th career World Cup victory.

Loch's compatriot Johannes Ludwig finished in second place posting runs of 50.115 and 49.952 on his way to a total time of 1:40.067.

Third place went to Dominik Fischnaller of Italy who posted runs of 50.071 and 50.050 on his way to a total time of 1:40.121.

Despite his comfortable victory Loch admitted he was not overly happy with his performance saying: "In the first run I had a huge failure. 

"So I thought: What is going on? You learn that you shouldn't go to curve eight too early when you come to Igls for the first time.

"But it was simply a lane problem. I thought that I would somehow be able to get into turn eight, which is why I didn't react very well when I got out of "Kreisel".

"But it just didn't work out."

Competition continues behind closed doors tomorrow, due to the coronavirus pandemic, with action scheduled in the women's singles, team relay and the men's, women's and doubles sprint events.