Great Britain win first four-man bobsleigh medal in 84 years with World Championships silver – ‘A long time coming’

Great Britain won their first four-man bobsleigh medal at the World Championships since 1939 as they claimed silver in St Moritz, Switzerland.

The team of Brad Hall, Taylor Lawrence, Greg Cackett and Arran Gulliver finished joint-second with Latvia as both countries clocked times of 4:20.30.

Gold went to Germany in a time of 4:19.61 as Olympic champion Francesco Friedrich claimed his fifth consecutive World Championships title.

The last four-man medal won at the competition by Great Britain was 84 years ago in Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy and was also silver.

“I am very happy with the medal,” said pilot Hall.

“Our last run was very rocky, I made it hard for ourselves. So it’s fantastic, the first medal for Great Britain in four-man bob since 1939. It’s been a long time coming.”

The event is contested over four runs and Great Britain went into their last run trailing Germany by eight hundredths of a second.

GB couldn’t do enough to overhaul Germany as they descended in a time of 1:05.34.

Latvia clocked 1:05.02 and Germany set a track record time of 1:04.73 to claim another gold medal.

Friedrich said: “We tweaked every detail again, arrived with new runners, changed the seating positions. Everything was just right there.

“When Brad Hall’s run in the fourth run wasn’t quite flawless, I knew the door was open.”

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