Tough test for 2-man
Great Britain face an uphill task if they are to make the podium in the first bobsleigh event of this year’s World Championships as Brad Hall and Taylor Lawrence sit seventh at the halfway mark.
Hall and Lawrence clocked a two-run time of 1 minute 51.40 seconds to sit 1.32 seconds outside the medal spots with two heats to come.
Germany - who have claimed all but seven of the 27 medals on offer at the last nine 2-man World Championships and won 21 of the 24 medals on offer during this year’s World Cup campaign - again dominate the discipline, with their three crews occupying the top three spots.
Reigning World and Olympic Champion Francesco Friedrich leads the way from Joahnnes Lochner and Adam Ammour as he looks for a ninth 2-man World title and a 17th across 2-man, 4-man and team events.
Friedrich clocked 1 minute 49.75 seconds over his two runs, with last season’s silver and bronze medalists Lochner and Ammour 0.14 and 0.33 behind respectively.
Home favourite Frankie Del Duca is the closest to preventing the Germans from repeating their 1-2-3 from last year’s Worlds: the American is 17 hundredths adrift of Ammour after coming down fourth fastest in both heats.
Switzerland’s Michael Vogt is 0.65 seconds further back, with the South Korean sled a tenth of a second in front of the Brits in sixth.
After a crash late in the first heat, the GBR2 crew of Adam Baird and Olly Butterworth withdrew ahead of the second run and therefore won’t compete tomorrow.
Runs 3 and 4 are scheduled to start at 2.30pm GMT tomorrow, with the 4-man set for Saturday and Sunday next week.
In the women’s monobob, Great Britain’s Adele Nicoll sits 15th at halfway after recording a time of 2 minutes 1.07 seconds over the first two runs.
Nicoll, who is competing at just her second World Championships as a pilot, came down in 1 minute 0.6 seconds in Run 1 and 1 minute 0.47 seconds in Run 2.
Home favourite Kaysha Love leads from Austria’s Katrin Beierl, with reigning World Champion Laura Nolte in third ahead of the final two runs at 7.30pm GMT tomorrow.
World Championship schedule
All times are GMT
Thurs 6 & Fri 7 Mar
Men's Skeleton: Weston 1st; Wyatt 2nd; Bostock 18th
Women's Skeleton: Stoecker 8th; Coltman 14th; Tarbit 18th
Sat 8 Mar
2-man Bobsleigh Runs 1&2 2pm
Women's Monobob Runs 1&2 7pm
Sun 9 Mar
Skeleton Team Event 12am
2-man Bobsleigh Runs 3&4 2.30pm
Women's Monobob Runs 3&4 7.30pm
Sat 15 Mar
4-man Bobsleigh Runs 1&2 1pm
Women's Bobsleigh Runs 1&2 6pm
Sun 16 Mar
4-man Bobsleigh Runs 3&4 1pm
Women's Bobsleigh Runs 3&4 6pm
