Bobsleigh - Lochner and Friedrich share gold for Germany

KONIGSSEE, Germany (Reuters) - Germany's top two four-man bobsleigh crews could not be separated as they shared gold in a thrilling conclusion to the world championships in Konigssee on Sunday. The sleds of Johannes Lochner and Francesco Friedrich were the last two to complete their fourth runs on the German ice track and both clocked a combined time of 3:14.10. It was the first dead heat in the history of the world championships. To complete Germany's domination, third place went to Nico Walther's sled with a combined time of 3:14.26. American great Steve Holcomb had a bumpy final run and missed out on the medals. Friedrich, and his crew of Candy Bauer, Martin Grothkopp and Thorsten Margis began the fourth run with a 0.01 second advantage but went 0.01 second slower than Lochner and who was accompanied by Matthias Kagerhuber, Joshua Bluhm and Christian Rasp. "That was incredibly nerve-racking. From the second run onwards, it just went back and forth by a hundredth of a second. An awesome competition," Lochner said. The men's skeleton gold went to Latvia's Martins Dukurs for the fifth time. After four runs, he pipped Germany's Axel Jungk by 0.37 seconds. It was Jungk's first world championship medal. Junior world champion Nikita Tregybov of Russia was third. (Reporting by Martyn Herman; Editing by Toby Davis)