Hall & Lawrence within touching distance

Brad Hall and Taylor Lawrence sit fourth at the halfway stage of the 2-man bobsleigh World Championships in Switzerland as they go in search of a first British men’s medal since the 1960s.

Hall and Lawrence are just nine hundredths of a second outside the podium places in the season showpiece in St Moritz with two of the four runs complete.

The last British men’s team to medal in either 2-man or 4-man competitions at the World Championships was way back in 1966 when Tony Nash and Robin Dixon took bronze in Cortina, two years after their Olympic triumph in Innsbruck.

Hall and Lawrence clocked a combined time of 2 minutes 11.39 seconds at the spiritual home of sliding as they registered the second best starts (5.05 seconds) in each of the two heats.

World Cup points leader Johannes Lochner is out in front for Germany in a time of 2 minutes 10.91 seconds, 0.32 seconds ahead of compatriot Francesco Friedrich, the man who has won the last seven 2-man World Championship crowns, as well as the last two Olympic titles.

Switzerland’s Michel Vogt currently occupies the last of the medal spots but the home favourite dropped back to within touching distance for the Brits having led after the opening run.

Hall and Lawrence have won four 2-man medals on the World Cup circuit so far this season but Hall has never finished higher than sixth in St Moritz.

The 32-year-old is making his sixth World Championship appearance, with his best finish a joint-fourth with Nick Gleeson in Whistler in 2019. That result matched the efforts of Bruce Tasker and Joel Fearon in Igls in 2016 and is the best British 2-man performance since that last Nash and Dixon bronze 57 years ago.

The race concludes with Runs 3 and 4 from 1pm GMT tomorrow.