Wider podium place for 4-man crew
Great Britain celebrated another top six-finish the final race of the opening World Cup weekend as the 4-man bobsleigh team made the wider podium in Cortina.
Brad Hall, Alex Cartagena, Leon Greenwood and Greg Cackett placed sixth in Cortina, 24 hours after Hall and Olly Butterworth secured the same result at the track that will host the Olympic Winter Games in less than three months’ time.
The British team clocked a two-run time of 1 minute 50.74 seconds off start times of 4.87 and then 4.88 seconds in Italy.
Cartagena was making his GB1 debut in place of the injured Taylor Lawrence, with the crew pushing together in international competition for the very first time.
Germany were prevented from achieving another clean sweep of the medals as Johannes Lochner again won gold ahead of compatriot Francesco Friedrich but team mate Adam Ammour finished down in fifth.
Lochner led by 18 hundredths after the first heat and extended that to 22 hundredths in the second as he backed up yesterday’s triumph in the 2-man in a time of 1 minute 49.73 seconds.
The South Korean crew led by Jinsu Kim were again the first sled home after the leading Germans as they claimed bronze, with Austria’s Markus Treichl the other sled to finish in front of the Brits.
In the women’s race earlier in the day, Adele Nicoll and Ashleigh Nelson finished 17th in a time of 1 minute 56.45 seconds.
The British pair recorded a 5.33 start time in each of the two heats, with Nicoll driving them to the 18th best time of 26 sleds in Run 1 and 16th fastest in Run 2.
There was yet more German success following their full house in the 2-man and 4-man events as Laura Nolte backed up yesterday’s win in the monobob with another gold.
Nolte finished 0.77 seconds clear of America’s Kaysha Love - the athlete she beat to top spot in the monobob - and a further two hundredths ahead of Kallie Humphries.
The World cup circuit now heads to Austria for the second race of the new season at a freshly renovated Igls, before races in Lillehammer and Sigulda take us up to the Christmas break.
