Hall & Lawrence 4th in 2-man
Brad Hall and Taylor Lawrence matched the country’s best 2-man bobsleigh result for 58 years when they finished fourth in Winterberg on Sunday afternoon.
GB were fourth in 2016 with Bruce Tasker and Joel Fearon and equal fourth through Hall and Nick Gleeson in 2019 but no team has done better since Olympic Champions Tony Nash and Robin Dixon won bronze in Cortina in 1966.
Hall and Lawrence were the top non-German team as the home nation dominated, having also won the women’s monobob competition earlier in the day and the men’s and team skeleton on Friday and Saturday.
The GB1 crew clocked a combined time of 3 minutes 39.44 seconds, finishing 0.30 seconds ahead of America’s Frankie Del Duca in fifth and 1.2 seconds adrift of last year’s World Champion, Johannes Lochner, in third.
Despite significantly reduced ice time this season after Hall underwent back surgery in the autumn, they improved on last year’s World Championship showing in St Moritz when they finished fifth.
Both men go again in the 4-man competition next weekend when they look to repeat their silver medal winning success of last season.
Hall and Lawrence made history with Arran Gulliver and Greg Cackett in winning the country’s first 4-man World Championship medal for 84 years 13 months ago. With Gulliver out injured, Leon Greenwood completes the line up for Saturday and Sunday’s event finale.
The GB2 crew of John Stanbridge and Jens Hullah finished 23rd on their World Championship debut. Stanbridge battled back from a broken neck just 15 months ago, while Hullah only joined the British set up this season.
With only the top 20 sleds making it through, Stanbridge and Hullah missed out on a place in the fourth and final run but they saved their best until last as they went 19th quickest in Run 3.
Francesco Friedrich led by the German 1-2-3 as the double Olympic Champion celebrated his eighth 2-man title, with Adam Ammour taking silver ahead of Lochner.
This year’s World Championships take place in Winterberg, Germany from February 22nd - March 3rd, with the schedule as follows:
Thurs 22 - Sun 25 Feb
Women's Skeleton: Stoecker 4th; Coltman 6th
Men's Skeleton: Weston 2nd; Wyatt 4th; Thompson 8th
Skeleton Mixed Team Competition: Stoecker & Weston 2nd; Coltman & Wyatt 4th
Women's Monobob: Nicoll 9th
2-man Bobsleigh: Hall & Lawrence 4th; Stanbridge & Hullah 23rd
Fri 1 Mar
Women's Bobsleigh Heats 1&2 2pm
Sat 2 Mar
4-man Bobsleigh Heats 1&2 9am
Women's Bobsleigh Heats 3&4 1.30pm
Sun 3 Mar
4-man Bobsleigh Heats 3&4 1pm
All races will be shown live on the IBSF YouTube channel and website
