Gold for GB 4-man in Moritz

Great Britain won a second 4-man bobsleigh World Cup gold since the turn of the year as they triumphed in St Moritz on Saturday.

Brad Hall, Taylor Lawrence, Arran Gulliver and Leon Greenwood took top spot at the spiritual home of sliding as they matched the team’s win in Winterberg earlier this month.

Hall, Lawrence, Gulliver and Greenwood won silver in Igls in their first race as a crew last weekend and they were even more impressive this afternoon as they finished more than two tenths of a second ahead of back-to-back Olympic Champion Francesco Friedrich.

They clocked a combined time of 2 minutes 11.59 seconds off start times of 5.05 and 5.10 seconds as they finished as the only team to beat any of the three German sleds in the field in the fifth 4-man competition of the eight-race World Cup season.

“It’s honestly the best feeling in the world to get that gold medal. I’m absolutely buzzing right now,” said Greenwood.

It’s my first ever gold medal in the sport and it’s come at an amazing place. It means so much to everyone in the team and you could see that emotion when we got out of the sled at the end. 

“Brad pulled out two brilliant drives here and we’re showing how consistent we are as a squad - that’s four medals in five races, with two of them gold.

“Arran (Gulliver) and I have been effectively racing against each other for a spot in the team for the last three years so to be on the sled together and winning races means so much. 

“Now we rest up to go again tomorrow when we want another gold. To do it twice in two days would be amazing.”

Johannes Lochner took bronze behind Hall and Friedrich, with Adam Ammour over half a second behind the Brits in fourth as GB bettered the bronze the team won at the same track a fortnight ago.

Today’s win sees Hall narrow the gap to Friedrich at the top of the overall rankings ahead of tomorrow’s second race of a 4-man double header in Switzerland.

GB are now just 51 points behind the most successful pilot the sport has ever produced with just two more races to come in Lillehammer next month after tomorrow’s sixth race of the campaign. They lead Lochner by 48 points and are 84 clear of Ammour in fourth. 

The same crew race again at 11am GMT tomorrow.