Hall and Lawrence just miss out on slice of bobsleigh history

Bobsleigh 04 Dec 22

Brad Hall and Taylor Lawrence narrowly missed out on making history for Great Britain with silver in the two-man bobsleigh in Park City.

Leading after the first run, the British duo had to settle for second after a brilliant run from four-time Olympic champion Francesco Friedrich of Germany. 

They were denied the chance to become the first British team to top the podium in the two-man bobsleigh since Nick Phipps and Alan Cearns in 1985, with Hall’s four-man team just missing out on a podium on Saturday. 

In the two-man event, a first run of 48 seconds flat had given them a lead of 0.15 over Friedrich and push man Thorsten Margis, but the reiging Olympic champions then completed their second run in 47.67 seconds to take the win by 0.26 seconds overall.  

Hall and Lawrence sit just 30 points behind Friedrich in the overall World Cup standings, with Park City bronze medallist Michael Vogt of Switzerland 28 points back from the British duo.

It was a case of another narrow margin in the four-man bobsleigh a day later as Friedrich again took victory, but this time Hall and his team missed out on the podium by just 0.03 seconds as Germany completed a clean sweep. 

Hall and Lawrence, who had claimed silver last time out in Whistler, were joined by Arran Gulliver and Greg Cackett and placed fourth after the first run with a time of 46.97 seconds, sitting behind an all-German provisional podium. 

Friedrich’s stellar first run kept him in gold position after a slower second effort, with his compatriots Johannes Lochner and Christoph Hafer taking silver and bronze. 

Great Britain put in the joint-third fastest second run alongside Hafer, but it was not enough to force their way onto the podium. 

Hall and Lawrence’s success in Park City was matched by Great Britain’s skeleton athletes with Laura Deas and Marcus Wyatt both earning bronze medals earlier in the week.

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