He added his fourth gold medal - successfully defending his two-man and four-man titles from Pyeongchang 2018 - by beating his long-time rival and compatriot Johannes Lochner to the title after four runs at the Yanqing National Sliding Centre.

Friedrich - joined by Thorsten Margis, Candy Bauer and Alexander Schüller in the bobsled - finished in 3min 54.30sec to top the podium, finishing 0.37sec in front of Lochner's team - which also comprised of Florian Bauer, Christopher Weber and Christian Rasp.

Justin Kripps' Canadian team of Ryan Sommer, Cam Stones and Benjamin Coakwell won the bronze medal, 0.79 behind the winner.

Friedrich has won all but one race this season in two and four-man bobsleigh.

His only defeat came in the last race of the four-man circuit, finishing second to Oskars Ķibermanis' Latvia in St. Moritz.

"We are so proud and so happy about the result," said Friedrich. 

"We gave everything we had today, we got it. 

"The first run we were in second place, but for all the others we had the best time. 

"We are so happy and the boys did an amazing job. 

"Our team helped us at the start and by polishing the runners."

Only 0.06 seconds separated Kripps from fourth-placed Christoph Hafer, who nearly completed an all-German podium.

Oskars Ķibermanis was fifth, followed by Britain's Brad Hall.

The Russian Olympic Committee were seventh and eighth thanks to pilots Rostislav Gaitiukevich and Maxim Andrianov.