4-man gold for GB in Germany

Brad Hall and his crew won World Cup bobsleigh gold with an incredible performance in Altenberg on Sunday afternoon.

Hall, Arran Gulliver, Taylor Lawrence and Greg Cackett topped the podium for the second time in three races, having also won gold in Lake Placid in the final competition before Christmas.

The British quartet clocked 1 minute 48.22 seconds to beat the trio of German teams who took a clean sweep of the Olympic medals just 11 months ago and they did so on German ice and on a track where the home nation hadn’t been beaten in 4-man for 17 seasons.

They were the second quickest starters in the first heat as they led at the halfway mark and a stunning second run start that was the fastest of any team all day set the platform for them to take gold by nine hundredths of a second from Johannes Lochner. Christoph Hafer claimed bronze 0.26 seconds back from the Brits, with reigning double Olympic and World Champion Francesco Friedrich fully half a second adrift of Hall and co.

GB topped the 4-man podium for the second time in a month

The win comes just 24 hours after Hall and Lawrence took silver in the 2-man race at the same venue and it means the team have now won eight medals across five World Cup competitions this season.

The result is the first time a British 4-man team have won two World Cup gold medals in a single season and it moves the 4-man crew to within 15 points of World No1 Friedrich in the overall standings with three World Cup races still to come.

It marks an outstanding weekend for British Bobsleigh and Skeleton after Matt Weston won men’s skeleton gold on Friday, with Laura Deas fifth and Marcus Wyatt sixth in their respective races.  

The World Cup circuits stays in Altenberg for another week, with World Cup 6 also doubling as the European Championships, before attentions turn to the World Championships in St Moritz in late January and early February.