Best yet for British crews
Brad Hall piloted his 4-man team to their best result of the season on Sunday when GB finished fifth in Lillehammer, while Adele Nicoll also secured her highest finishes of the campaign in both the monobob and women's bobsleigh.
Hall, Ben Simons, Leon Greenwood and Greg Cackett missed a first medal of the new campaign by 0.2 seconds in the fourth race of seven prior to February’s Olympic Winter Games.
GB clocked a combined time of 1 minute 40.49 seconds, with their first run effort of 50.12 seconds leaving them fourth at halfway before a second run time of 50.37 saw them slip a spot in the final standings.
The result was a one-place improvement on the same crew’s result at the same venue on Saturday, when they finished joint sixth in the first of a 4-man double header.
The crew combination had never raced together before prior to this weekend, with Simons returning to the international circuit for the first time since the end of the last Olympic cycle.
They clocked start times of 4.99 seconds and 5 seconds dead on Sunday to go 10th quickest off the block, having started in 5.01 and 4.97 in Saturday’s competition.
The result sees the British team move up to fifth in the IBSF rankings, behind only the three leading German crews and Italy’s Patrick Baumgartner.
Johannes Lochner took top spot in both races in Lillehammer, with Germany completing a clean sweep of the medals on each day as Francesco Friedrich and Adam Ammour swapped places in the top three.
Adele Nicoll secured season's best on Saturday and on Sunday
Nicoll also enjoyed a positive performance in each of her two races this weekend as she set season’s bests in both the monobob and women’s bobsleigh.
The Welshwoman finished 13th in each event, significantly improving on her previous monobob results of 19th and 25th and her 2-woman efforts of 17th and 19th in Cortina and Igls.
Nicoll clocked 1 minute 48.77 seconds in Saturday’s individual event, before teaming up with Ashleigh Nelson on Sunday to come down in 1.44.97.
Like Hall, Nicoll outdrove her start in each of the four runs over the weekend.
Australia’s Bree Walker won the monobob race ahead of Katrin Beierl and Laura Nolte, before Nolte led a German 1-2-3 with Kim Kalicki and Lisa Buckwitz 24 hours later.
The circuit now moves on to Siglulda for the final competition of 2025. There is no 4-man action next week due to track limitations so a double 2-man race has been scheduled, as is always the case in Latvia.
