Crew change can’t slow British Bobsleigh’s medal momentum as Brad Hall steers four-man team to Igls World Cup silver

Brad Hall guided University of Bath-based British Bobsleigh to a hat-trick of medals from as many IBSF World Cup races this year as they won four-man silver in Igls.
Only back-to-back Olympic Champion Francesco Friedrich finished ahead of Hall, Taylor Lawrence, Leon Greenwood and Arran Gulliver as GB followed up gold in Winterberg and bronze in St Moritz with another podium placing.
It was the first time the quartet had raced together, Gulliver replacing Greg Cackett who picked up an injury in training, but they still recorded the third fastest start time in Run 1 and the fourth quickest in Run 2.
“We’re really pleased with silver here today,” said Hall, who sits second in the overall World Cup rankings midway through the eight-race season. “We had to make changes to the crew so to pull out two really good starts and two really solid drives when this team have never raced together is a big plus.”
The GB2 crew of Adam Baird, Luka Williams, Olly Butterworth and Alex Cartagena were 12th at halfway but dropped to 18th after the second run.
Hall and Lawrence also made the wider podium in Saturday’s two-man race when they finished fifth in Igls, while Baird and Austin Milward finished 22nd.
Adele Nicoll and Kya Placide were 13th in the women’s bobsleigh, Nicoll having placed 15th in the monobob.
The University of Bath is home to the UK’s only outdoor push-start training track and British Bobsleigh and Skeleton Association athletes also do their strength and conditioning work at the Team Bath Sports Training Village. Click here to find out more.
Picture credit: Viesturs Lacis | IBSF