The defending champion and his brake team of Ilvir Khuzin, Vasiliy Kondratenko and Aleksei Pushkarev clocked a winning time of 1min 41.89sec at the Whistler Sliding Centre.

Yesterday, Kasjanov and Pushkarev raced in the two-man event with a banner which read "the truth is on our side" draped over the side of their bobsleigh in protest at the decision to disqualify Alexander Zubkov from the four-man event at Sochi 2014 in connection with evidence of doping and sample tampering at the 2014 Olympic Games in Sochi. 

They were both members of the Russian team that finished fourth in the four-man competition at Sochi 2014 and Zubkov's disqualification means they are in line for an Olympic bronze medal, unless they too are sanctioned.

Khuzin, also part of the team at Sochi 2014, is another Russian to have appeared in front of the International Olympic Committee Commission chaired by Denis Oswald. 

Finishing second today was Great Britain’s Lamin Deen, securing the first major medal of his career.

Deen and his team of Ben Simons, Toby Olubi and Andrew Matthews led the rankings after setting a track record of 50.66sec in their opening run.

The previous record of 50.86 was set by the United States when they won the Olympic gold medal at Vancouver 2010. 

The British team ended up 0.28 seconds behind the Russian quartet cheered on by Zubkov, now President of the Bobsleigh Federation of Russia.

Germany’s Nico Walther and his brake team of Kevin Kuske, Kevin Korona and Eric Franke were a further 0.20 seconds back in third. 

Johannes Lochner of Germany has managed to defend his lead in the overall standings by finishing fifth in Whistler. 

He has 601 points, 24 more than nearest challenger Walther.

Canada's Justin Kripps, fourth in Whistler, is 39 points off the pace in third.

In the men's skeleton race, South Korea’s Sungbin Yun came out on top to make it two consecutive victories in this season's IBSF World Cup.

The 2016 world bronze medallist, the winner in Park City last weekend, triumphed in a time of 1:44.34.

He set a track record of 51.99 on his first run, becoming the first skeleton athlete to officially complete the 1,450 metres trip down the Olympic track in under 52 seconds.

After two runs, Yun held a 0.75-second lead over junior world champion Nikita Tregubov of Russia.

Tregubov’s second-place finish marks his best World Cup result to date.

Latvia’s Tomass Dukurs was 0.99 seconds back in third.  

Canada’s Dave Greszczyszyn was third after the first run but fell back to seventh.

He still celebrated his best result of the season in front of a home crowd.

Following the third of eight races in the 2017-2018 IBSF World Cup season, Yun has taken the lead in the overall standings with 660 points.

The defending World Cup champion Martins Dukurs, who was previously joint first with Yun, has fallen back to second after the Latvian finished sixth in Whistler.

Older brother Tomass is third with 568 points.

The series is due to move to Europe next month with the event in Winterberg in Germany, scheduled to take place between December 8 and 10.