Another World Cup four-man silver for Brad Hall and his crew as Great Britain’s outstanding start to Olympic bobsleigh season continues

12 December 2021

Brad Hall and his crew continued an outstanding start to the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games season for University of Bath-based British Bobsleigh as they won four-man silver in Germany on Sunday.

Hall, Taylor Lawrence, Nick Gleeson and Greg Cackett clocked a combined time of 1 minute 49.68 seconds to finish second behind Olympic Champion Francesco Friedrich in the fifth World Cup competition of the season in Winterberg.

It was the second silver of the season for the four-man team following last month’s superb showing in Igls and the fourth medal overall for Hall and his crew this season.

“I’m incredibly proud of the boys,” said Hall, who currently sits sixth in the overall four-man rankings and fifth in the two-man standings. “We had three world-class sleds breathing down our necks after the first run – they were just two hundredths, four hundredths and sixth hundredths behind us – and we knew we were under pressure.

“All I kept thinking about was the pressure of the fourth run at the Olympics and how would we respond. We responded by pulling out a brilliant push and I managed to get the sled down and secure a silver medal.”

Cackett added: “What’s so exciting for us was that today felt like a bit of a dress rehearsal for the Olympics – it was a two-day race weekend and on the final run we brought out a huge start, bringing our time down by three hundredths and that was an unbelievable team effort.”

Lamin Deen, Sam Blanchet, Ben Simons and Joel Fearon finished 23rd in the same race in a one-run time of 55.44 seconds off a 5.15 start. Mica McNeill and Montell Douglas were 18th in the women’s race earlier in the day in a time of 1.55.16.

The World Cup circuit now moves back to Altenberg for the final race of the calendar year, before a two-man double header in Sigulda and a return to Winterberg prior to the circuit finale in St Moritz in mid-January.

The Olympic Winter Games take place in Beijing from February 4-20, with the four-man bobsleigh scheduled for the final day of competition.

Click here to find out more about the bobsleigh programme at the University of Bath.

Photo credit: @rekords

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