Crash halves GB's 4-man challenge

Day 1 of the 4-man bobsleigh at the World Championships featured disappointment for Great Britain as one of two British crews overturned during the second of the afternoon’s runs.

Brad Hall, Bruce Tasker, Joel Fearon and Greg Cackett saw their race prematurely ended after they had sat in 13th place at the conclusion of Run 1.

Hall, who was making his World Championship debut as a 4-man pilot, had driven a time of 48.70 seconds in the first run, just 0.22 seconds outside the top four in a bunched field, on the back of the fourth fastest start time of 4.78 seconds.

A similar second run start time of 4.79 followed but they didn’t complete the course and therefore won’t be part of the field when the action returns tomorrow at 12.30pm GMT.

Lamin Deen, Ben Simons, John Baines and Andrew Matthews remain the mix, however, after they recorded a combined time of 1 minute 38.04 seconds to sit 21st at the halfway mark.

Lamin Deen, Ben Simons, John Baines & Andrew Matthews are in 21st

A first run of 49 seconds dead saw them 23rd in a 34-strong field and they climbed two places with a 49.04 in Run 2.

Deen and his team are 0.15 seconds behind the sled directly ahead of them, with the top 20 crews after tomorrow’s third run going through to the final lauf.

Germany’s Johannes Lochner leads by just two hundredths of a second from 2-man World Champion Francesco Friedrich, with Latvia’s reigning 4-man World Champion Oskars Melbardis a tenth off top spot.