Nico Walther's team led home a German 1-2 ©IBSF/Twitter

Germany swept the top two positions on home ice as International Bobsleigh and Skeleton Federation World Cup action concluded in Altenberg with the men's four-man event.

Nico Walther piloted a sled also including Kevin Kuske, Christian Poser and Eric Franke to victory in a combined time of 1min 48.79sec.

Their first run of 54.17 seconds proved the quickest of the competition before a second effort of 54.62.

This proved enough to stay in front of rivals and compatriots Francesco Friedrich, Candy Bauer, Martin Grothkopp and Thorsten Margis.

They clocked 1:48.84 to miss out by just five hundredths of a second.

Nico Walther's sled produced the fastest time of the competition en-route to victory ©Getty Images
Nico Walther's sled produced the fastest time of the competition en-route to victory ©Getty Images

Latvia claimed bronze courtesy of Oskars Kibermanis, Janis Jansons, Matiss Miknis and Intars Dambis.

They clocked a combined time of 1:49.03 across their two runs to finish 0.24 seconds off the pace.

It marked a first German bobsleigh win of the weekend after Canada swept both two-person events yesterday.

Kaillie Humphries and Phylicia George won the women's competition before Justin Kripps broke a 14-year-old track start record on his birthday alongside Alex Kopacz to claim men's honours.

Johannes Lochner, another German who was fifth today, still leads the overall four-man standings with two legs to go.

He boasts 1,235 points to lead Walther who has 1,196.

Kripps is third on 1,156. 

The season will now continue in St Moritz in Switzerland from January 12.