GB win 4-man gold in Winterberg
Great Britain Bobsleigh started 2025 with an historic World Cup win in Winterberg on Sunday afternoon.
Brad Hall, Taylor Lawrence, Arran Gulliver and Greg Cackett took gold in the blue ribband 4-man race in Germany in what was their first start together for 13 months.
No non-German crew had won in Winterberg since Russia’s Alexander Zubkov in 2012 - a run that included 14 World Cup races and two World Championships - but the Brits went quickest in both heats to begin the new year in the perfect fashion.
Hall and his team clocked a combined time of 1 minute 48.07 seconds to finish 19 hundredths of a second ahead of reigning back-to-back Olympic Champion and six-time 4-man World Champ Francesco Friedrich on his home ice and nearly half a second in front of Friedrich’s compatriot Adam Ammour in third.
It is a second British gold in Winterberg this weekend after Matt Weston won the men’s skeleton on Friday morning.
“To finish in first place here is incredible. It’s been a very long time since anyone other than the Germans have won here,” said Hall, whose team had to contend with a lengthy delay to start of the second run.
We’ve won so many silvers here so it’s great to finally get gold. It’s also a bit of redemption for last year’s World Championships when we finished sixth when we’d wanted a medal.
“It was a great race. We didn’t know what to expect going into it because we saw a lot of snow and rain forecast. We came into it with Arran and Greg coming back from injuries and it was the first time Arran’s been on the sled since Innsbruck over a year ago.
“The guys all did great - they gave me an awesome platform. To come away with those start times, we’re very happy with that.
“That put us in a great position in first after the first run but then the problems started with the forerunner crash, the lengthy delay and the other crashes in Run 2.
“It was very difficult to manage the energy levels and keep your head but we did that really professionally and we put in another good start.
“We’re extremely happy and we’re now hoping this is a stepping stone to being on top of the podium a few more times this season before we hit the World Championships in March.”
Gulliver, Cackett, Hall and Lawrence made history in Germany
No fewer than five German pilots had won in Winterberg since Zubkov’s success 13 years ago (Friedrich; Johannes Lochner; Nico Walther and Maximilian Arndt) and the hosts had taken a clean a sweep of the medals at last year’s World Championships in the most recent top tier race at the track prior to today’s competition.
The win was GB’s first since the exact same crew won in Altenberg in January 2023 - the last of three 4-man race wins that season - and it takes Hall’s World Cup medal tally to 23, plus a trio of Overall medals in 2-man, 4-man and Combined disciplines.
GB were the second quickest starters in both heats in times of 5.09 and then 5.10 seconds despite the fact that the crew had not competed in a race together since December 2023 in Igls.
With injuries heavily hampering Hall, Cackett and Gulliver last season and the latter not fit to compete in the first part of the current campaign, producing such impressive start times at the first time of asking is a massive statement as the countdown to the next Olympic Winter Games ticks close to a year.
Italy’s Patrick Baumgartner was agonisingly close to a first world Cup medal as he finished fourth just 0.03 seconds behind Ammour, with Switzerland’s Michael Vogt in fifth and Lochner in sixth, 0.72 seconds back from the Brits.
Today’s sensational gold comes only 24 hours after Hall and Lawrence just missed out on a medal in the 2-man on Saturday as they finished as the top non-German sled in a 27-strong field.
Hall and Lawrence were 0.28 seconds off the podium and exactly the same time clear of the South Korean sled in fifth as they clocked 1 minute 49.16 seconds over the two runs.
They were the fourth fastest in both runs having been the sixth and then fifth quickest starters in going 5.21 and then 5.22 seconds off the top.
Friedrich won his 50th 2-man World Cup gold as he beat Ammour by 0.21 seconds, with Lochner 0.41 further back in third.
The GB2 crew of Adam Baird and Olly Butterworth came 16th in a time of 1.50.15 and Baird and Butterworth finished equal 17th with Austin Milward and Alex Cartagena in today’s 4-man race in a time of 1 minute 49.79 seconds.
The circuit heads to St Moritz in Switzerland next week, with skeleton action scheduled for Friday and bobsleigh for Saturday and Sunday at the spiritual home of sliding.
You can watch the action live via the IBSF website or YouTube channel and follow the results and reaction on the BBSA’s Facebook, Instagram and X accounts.
