The IOC offers the following Video News Release to all news agencies, broadcasters and online news platforms free of charge. Latvia’s Gints Berzins pulled off a test of nerve in St Moritz by narrowly winning the men’s single luge competition of the Winter Youth Olympics (YOG) - the first gold of these Games to be going back to the Baltic state. 17-year-old Berzins, who is from Sigulda and competes for Latvia’s MSG club, held a narrow advantage of 0.027 seconds after the first run over his Russian rival Pavel Repilov. Gints was tracked at a speed of 77.2 mph, finishing in 54.036 seconds. For his closing run, he went slightly faster finishing in 54.009 seconds, again tracked at 77.2 mph or 124.2 km/h. Overall he won by just under two tenths of a second in 1:48.229. Given a dusting of snow prior to the race, the track was slower than the athletes expected. Berzins admitted it made him a little nervous. He said: “I thought the race was going to be more difficult because sleds are not as fast in the snow. I was a little bit scared and stressed as I like to go fast and this is normally one of the fastest tracks.’ Repilov was left with the silver medal. Behind him in third, Germany’s Timon Grancagnolo won bronze.