Bumper start to the New Year

Bumper start to the New Year

The Great Britain Bobsleigh and Skeleton squads are back on ice this week as they look to start 2016 in style in St Moritz, Lake Placid, Igls and Koenigssee.

World Cup action returns after a three-week break with both sports having headed to the United States for races on Friday and Saturday at Lake Placid in New York.

Skeleton star Laura Deas will be aiming to build on her current position of third in the world rankings at the track where she made her World Cup debut just over a year ago, while men’s bobsleigh pilots Lamin Deen and John Jackson also have their sights set high ahead of the fourth World Cup event of the season. Deen sits eighth in the world rankings, while Jackson enjoyed a superb return to the top circuit in Germany last month as he claimed a top 10 finish almost two years after last competing in the World Cup following a long-standing Achilles injury.

There’s more skeleton action in Austria with races five and six of the Intercontinental Cup in Innsbruck getting us started on Thursday and Friday morning, while a large proportion of the bobsleigh squad will be entering European Cup competition as Koenigssee plays host to a women’s race, a 2-man event and a double dose of 4-man. Olly Biddulph, Brad Hall, Ben Simons and Bruce Tasker will all drive in the men’s competition, with Mica McNeil piloting the women’s sled.

And there’s also the small matter of the final qualifying race for next month’s Winter Youth Olympics in Switzerland on Saturday as GB’s bright young bobsleigh stars look to continue their stranglehold on the medal positions. GB have won 50 per cent of the prizes on offer in youth bobsleigh so far this season, with Annabel Chaffey, Kelsea Purchall, Aimee Davey, Adam Hames, Ed Himbury and George Johnston all shining ahead of the showpiece event in Lillehammer on February 20.

We’ll keep you updated on all the results as they come in on here and on social media and you can catch all the World Cup action live via http://www.ibsf.org/en/ from 1.30pm GMT on Friday.

Did you know?

John Jackson secured a World Cup silver medal at the Lake Placid circuit in 2013, while Lizzy Yarnold won last season’s skeleton race at the same venue.