The German finished his two runs in 52.349sec and 52.33 to produce a combined time of 1min 44.679sec, which secured the gold medal in the men's event.

Austrians Nico Gleirscher and Wolfgang Kindl finished second and third with times of 1:44.747 and 1:44.86, respectively.

Individually, Ludwig's runs were only the third-best in each round, however his opponent's inconsistency gifted him victory.

Gleischer recorded the 11^th best time after his leading display in the first round, while Kindl was in 18^th place going into the second.

The win leaves Ludwig sitting atop the overall season standings with 675 points with Kindl following behind on 551 points.

Russia's Roman Repilov makes up the top three with 430 points.

There was more joy for Germany in the men's doubles event as Tobias Wendl and Tobias Arlt capitalised on several crashes to win the gold medal with a time of 1:27.184.

It was the pair's 46^th World Cup victory.

"Honestly, we would not have finished better than second under normal circumstances, Toni and Sascha did very well," said the Olympic champions.

The silver and bronze medals were again won by Austrians as Thomas Steu and Lorenz Koller finished 0.0441sec behind in second, while Yannick Mueller and Armin Frauscher's 1:27.338 saw them finish third.

Favourites Toni Eggert and Sascha Benecken of Germany and Andris and Juris Sics of Latvia both crashed on turn 13 of the Winterberg track as they approached it too late.

It meant that the Latvians slipped to 18^th place while Eggert and Benecken were disqualified as they did not slide far enough and had to paddle their way over the finish line due to losing so much speed.