So close to more medals as top-four finishes continue fine start to 2020-21 IBSF World Cup season for British Bobsleigh & Skeleton
Matt Weston, Mica McNeill and Montell Douglas narrowly missed out on medals as the University of Bath-based British Bobsleigh & Skeleton Association took to the ice at the latest IBSF World Cup in Igls, Austria.
Weston, in only his second season of skeleton racing, was tied for the lead with legendary Latvian Martins Dukurs at the halfway mark on the men’s race on Friday but impressive second-run times from Russian duo Alexander Treitakov and Nikita Tregubov saw him eventually finish fourth and miss out on a maiden medal by just 13 hundredths of a second.
Benji Fulker finished an impressive 12th on his World Cup debut, a fortnight after he won Europa Cup bronze in Winterberg, and fellow Brit Jerry Rice was 16th in his first World Cup race of the season.
In the women’s race, Madelaine Smith, Brogan Crowley and Amelia Coltman finished 12th, 15th and 16th respectively in strange circumstances. The race was reduced to a one-heat competition after Katie Tannenbaum hit a broom that had been left on the track in the latter stages of Run 1. All 20 sliders had completed their first runs before the IBSF took the decision to take out the times from Run 1 and start afresh in Run 2.
The first British Bobsleigh World Cup action of the 2020-21 season saw McNeill equal her best-ever result as she teamed up with Montell Douglas (pictured top) to finish fourth overall.
McNeill also competed in the women’s monobob competition on Saturday, finishing fifth in just her third competitive race in that discipline.
The men’s races saw Brad Hall secure a superb sixth spot with Greg Cackett on Sunday, 24 hours after finishing seventh in his season opener with Nick Gleeson .
James Dasaolu became arguably the fastest man to push a bobsleigh for any nation on the World Cup circuit as he made his top-tier debut alongside Lamin Deen.
Dasaolu, who has competed at two Summer Olympics and clocked 9.91 seconds over 100m, and four-man specialist Deen finished 19th in both races.
The British Bobsleigh & Skeleton Association is based at the University of Bath, with facilities at the Sports Training Village including the UK’s only outdoor push-start track. Click here to find out more.
