2nd silver for Hall & co

British Bobsleigh made it two medals in as many days as they won World Cup silver in Whistler in the early hours of Sunday morning.

Brad Hall, Arran Gulliver, Taylor Lawrence and Greg Cackett backed up Hall and Lawrence’s 2-man silver on Saturday with another superb showing on the world’s fastest track.

Just as was the case 24 hours earlier, only double back-to-back Olympic Champion Francesco Friedrich finished above them in Canada on the opening weekend of the World Cup season.

The result capped a remarkable three days for the country’s bobsleigh and skeleton teams, with Marcus Wyatt, Brogan Crowley and Matt Weston winning gold, silver and bronze for British Skeleton prior to the double medal tally from Hall and his team.

Hall, Gulliver, Lawrence and Cackett clocked a combined two-run time of 1 minute 41.98 seconds to finish almost four tenths of a second ahead of home favourite Austin Taylor and a further 12 hundredths clear of Switzerland’s Michael Vogt in fourth.

The Brits were the second fastest starts in each heat, just a hundredth shy of Friedrich and co in Run 1 and two hundredths back in Run 2.

They sat third at halfway in 51.14 before jumping ahead of Taylor thanks to a second run time of 50.84.  

The result was even more impressive given that it was Gulliver’s World Cup debut and only his second ever bobsleigh race just a couple of months after he first set foot in a bobsleigh on ice.

It means GB have won six silver medals in their last five World Cup competitions, with three each in 2-man and 4-man events from New Year’s Day onwards.

The World Cup circuit now moves on to Park City, Utah, followed by Lake Placid in New York State, with the European leg of the season coming after Christmas.