Going alongside the Olympic gold medals he won at Pyeongchang 2018 and Beijing 2022, it underlined Friedrich’s claim to be the greatest bobsledder in history.

On the Olympia Bobrun, Friedrich and team-mates Thorsten Margis, Candy Bauer and Alexander Schueller had the four best times at the start and in the final run once again gained season track record of 1min 04.73sec to underline their superiority with a combined final time of 4:19.61.

The Germans finished 0.69 seconds ahead of Great Britain and Latvia, who both recorded the same combined time of 4:20.30 after four rounds and were each awarded silver medals.

The British team of Brad Hall, Arran Gulliver, Taylor Lawrence and Greg Cackett claimed their country’s first medal in the four-man event at these Championships since Cortina d'Ampezzo in 1939, when they had also won a silver.

The performance by Emils Cipulis, Edgars Nemme, Davis Springis and Matīss Miknis extended Latvia’s recent impressive record in the four-man bobsleigh at these IBSF World Championships, having won gold in 2016, silver in 2019 and bronze in 2009 and 2015.

Miknis was the only member of the team that had been in the last medal-winning sled at Whistler four years ago.

For Friedrich, this was his 13th World Championships gold medal once his victories in the two-man bobsleigh and mixed team event are added.

The 32-year-old from Dresden revealed that a number of technical modifications before the event was the key to this latest victory.

"We tweaked every detail again, arrived with new runners, changed the seating positions," Friedrich said.

"Everything was just right there.

"When Brad Hall's run in the fourth run wasn't quite flawless, I knew the door was open."

Hall, who had piloted Britain to European Championships gold in Altenberg last month, admitted that any chance of victory slipped away on that final run.

"I am very happy with the medal," the 32-year-old said.

"Our last run was very rocky.

"I made it hard for ourselves.

"So, it’s fantastic, the first medal for Great Britain in four-man bob since 1939.

"It’s been a long time coming."

The four-man bobsleigh brought the curtain down on the IBSF World Championships with Germany again finishing top of the overall medals table for the eighth consecutive time.

They finished with a total of nine medals, made up of six gold, two silver and bronze.

For Britain, it has been an outstanding Championships as they finished second with four medals, including a gold in the men's skeleton for Matt Weston.

Today's medal was Latvia’s second silver with Artūrs Klots having taken second place in the first IBSF World Championships to incorporate Para-bobsleigh.

But German dominance is set to continue next year when the IBSF World Championships takes place in Winterberg.