Stunning silver for Hall & co
Brad Hall and Greg Cackett made it two medals in as many days as they won World Cup silver in the 4-man bobsleigh in Igls alongside Nick Gleeson and Taylor Lawrence.
Having finished a fine third in the 2-man event at the same track on Saturday, Hall piloted his team to GB’s first 4-man medal in four years to make it one of the country’s best World Cup weekends in living memory.
Hall, Lawrence, Gleeson and Cackett clocked a combined time of 1 minute 41.57 seconds as they tied for second place with veteran German pilot Johannes Lochner - the crew that beat them to silver on Saturday.
Start times of 5.00 and 5.01 seconds were the second fastest of each run, giving Hall the platform to finish almost a quarter of a second clear of home favourite Benjamin Maier in fourth.
Yesterday’s 2-man race winner Francesco Friedrich took top spot yet again - his 53rd World Cup win overall.
“It’s been a great weekend. We’ve done something that hasn’t been done for a very long time,” said Hall.
“We knew that we were capable of a result like this but it’s brilliant to put it together on race day and to make the podium for the first time together as a 4-man team.
The boys were brilliant today - just as they were in training all summer & all autumn. We had the second best start times in both runs & that gave us the platform to compete.
“We said yesterday that we want to be in the mix for medals in the build up to the Olympics & today we’ve shown everyone what we’re capable of in the 4-man.
“I’m incredibly proud of the boys and I hope we’ve done the nation proud, too.”
Hall's team have three podiums in the last few weeks across 2-man and 4-man
The medal was the third of the season for Hall and Cackett, who also won silver in the 2-man at the Olympic Test Event in Beijing last month, and a first of their careers for both Paratrooper Gleeson and Royal Marine Commando Lawrence.
Hall previously won 4-man bronze with Cackett, Bruce Tasker and Joel Fearon in Park City in November 2017, with GB’s most-recent 4-man medal coming with a gold for Lamin Deen, Andrew Matthews, Toby Olubi and Ben Simons in Whistler a week later.
Deen, Fearon, Olubi and Simons finished 21st in today’s race, missing out on a top-20 spot and a second run by seven hundredths of a second.
In the women’s race earlier in the day, Mica McNeill and Montell Douglas finished 16th in a time of 1 minute 47.34 seconds.
Germany took gold yet again through Laura Nolte, with compatriot Kim Kalicki winning silver ahead of Canada’s Christine de Bruin.
Next week’s racing also takes place in Igls, with men’s and women’s skeleton on Friday, women’s mono bob and 2-man set for Saturday and women’s and 4-man bobsleigh scheduled for Sunday.
You can watch all of this season’s World Cup racing via the International Bobsleigh & Skeleton Federation website and on their YouTube channel.
We’ll provide updates via our own social media channels and we’ll post a round up of results once they’ve come in.
