EC Gold & Silver for Nicoll

Adele Nicoll won Europa Cup monobob gold and silver in Igls on successive days this week.

Nicoll took top spot on the second tier circuit on Wednesday and backed that success up with second place at the same track 24 hours later.

Victory in that opening race was the first monobob gold of Nicoll’s career and her second overall, after winning the women’s EC race in St Moritz with Kya Placide 12 months ago.

Nicoll beat her closest challenger in the 22-strong field by 0.22 seconds as she registered the fourth and then fifth fastest starts and was the quickest sled in both heats in Austria.

Wednesday’s silver medal winner, Linda Weiszewski of Poland, then pipped Nicoll to gold on Thursday by just 13 hundredths of a second, with Germany’s Charlotte Candrix claiming bronze for the second day running.

In the 2-man bobsleigh competitions that followed the women’s events, Great Britain’s Nick Gleeson and Jens Hullah recorded back-to-back fifth-place finishes.

Gleeson and Hullah missed a medal by just 0.01 seconds in Wednesday’s race featuring 28 sleds and were only 11 hundredths shy of a podium place the following day.

They were the first non-German sled home on Thursday off the eighth and then third best starts, having been the quickest and then fifth fastest off the top in Race 1.

All three British athletes go again on Saturday and Sunday, with Gleeson and Hullah taking part in successive 4-man races and Nicoll competing in the 2-woman events.