Another Silver for Hall & Lawrence

British Bobsleigh’s incredible season continued on Saturday afternoon as Brad Hall and Taylor Lawrence won World Cup silver in Altenberg.

Hall and Lawrence clocked a combined time of 1 minute 49.63 seconds to finish second behind home favourite Johannes Lochner and more than half a second clear of double Olympic champion Francesco Friedrich in third.

That makes it seven World Cup medals for the 2 and 4-man teams with just under half a season still to come and it means Hall and Lawrence have now made the podium four times in as many races together in the 2-man event.

The British pair recorded the second fastest start and the second quickest downtime in each heat, with their Run 2 effort igniting hopes of a first 2-man gold medal for the country since 1985 before Lochner secured the win for Germany.

“We’re over the moon with that result - we keep adding to that World Cup medal tally each week,” said Lawrence, who only made his 2-man debut in November.

Brad produced some absolutely world class driving today - we couldn’t have asked for any better.

“We had two big pushes as well and we’re super happy to come away with the second quickest starts in each run.

“Altenberg’s been a bit of a bogey track for us so to come away with Brad’s best result here is really special. The support here from the German fans has been amazing, too. They’ve been incredible.

“We’re definitely moving in the right direction leading into the World Champs in Moritz. We just want to transfer that into the 4-man tomorrow and, hopefully, come away with the gold because we really do think we’re capable of that.”

GB remain third in the 2-man world rankings after three silvers, a bronze and a fifth-place finish in five races so far this season. Lochner leads Friedrich by 31 points, with Hall just 22 further back and 70 clear of Christoph Hafer in fourth.

The latest bobsleigh medal comes less than 24 hours after British Skeleton topped the podium at the same track thanks to Matt Weston’s second gold of the season.

Hall and Lawrence go again tomorrow from 1.30pm GMT when Greg Cackett and Arran Gulliver join them in the 4-man event.

The World Cup action will then remain in Altenberg for another week, before the teams head to Switzerland for the World Championships in late January and early February.