Brad Hall hopes the incredible journey of Britain’s four-man bobsled has only just begun after they finished sixth at the Olympics.
The 31-year-old guided Nick Gleeson, Taylor Lawrence and Greg Cackett through a bumpy road over the last three or four years, enabling them to arrive in Beijing in contention.
Hall set his own bar at an Olympic medal but sixth was a fantastic result for a pilot who has defied the odds and was way down in 17th in PyeongChang four years ago.
“I’m very proud of the performance we have done,” said the 31-year-old.
“The guys pushed incredibly well, we got the top two starts and I drove really well as well.
“It was evident that we didn’t have the speed at the bottom of the track and we are not really sure why as the driving lines were quite good.
“We can hold our heads up high and know that our performance was good, we did the best we can and sixth place for a small nation that doesn’t have its own ice track and not much funding is definitely something to be very proud of.”
The quartet posted a combined time of 3:55.72 across the four runs, showing excellent consistency at Yanqing National Sliding Centre.
They were never more than half a second off the gold medal pace set by all-conquering German pilot Francesco Friedrich, who defend his title in style, prevailing by 0.37 seconds.
Their first run was the fastest, a clocking of 58.60 that saw them in fifth place.
Hall, Lawrence, Gleeson and Cackett were 0.31 seconds off bronze medal position coming into the second day of racing.
They ended it 0.61 clear of a podium place with their final two runs down the world’s first and only 30-degree track coming in at 58.65 and 59.38.
Cackett, who partnered Hall four years ago, was philosophical about the performance.
“I feel a bit weird about it because we are competitors and we knew we could win a medal,” he said.
“We’ve had a storming performance. I would say the bond that we’ve had and being able to pull together through our time being self-funded has been the real magic.
“To sign it off with a top six is a great return, and we’ve had a massive World Cup season which we can be proud of.”