Brad Hall insisted he would take the positives out of his first Olympic experience as Team GB's bobsledders brought the curtain down on British representation at PyeongChang 2018.
Brad Hall insisted he would take the positives out of his first Olympic experience as Team GB's bobsledders brought the curtain down on British representation at the PyeongChang 2018 Olympic Winter Games.
Appearing at his maiden Games, Hall was given the responsibility of driving one of the two British sleds after establishing himself as an international pilot in recent seasons.
At the start of the season he helped his team to World Cup bronze in Whistler and he ended it on Sunday by finishing as Britain's best performing sled. The 27-year-old eventually placed 17th, one position above Lamin Deen's crew. But Hall, who came through the Accelerated Driver Programme in recent years, will look back with pride at the way his team of Joel Fearon, Nick Gleeson and Greg Cackett, persevered.
“I'm really happy and proud of our performance if a little bit disappointed,” he said.
“We pushed well, we drove down the track well, so that’s all we can do as athletes.
“In that respect I’m really happy with that but obviously it didn’t transfer into a result.
“We know that we have had that this season – we’ve had a couple of World Cup medals this season and a number of top tens.
“This is my first proper season as a four-man pilot, I’m the least experienced in the field except for one or two people, so I think there’s a lot of positives to take. The future is looking bright for us.”
Team Deen – made up of Deen, Toby Olubi, Ben Simons and Andrew Matthews – were a three hundredths behind their teammates.
And two-time Olympian Deen – winner of World Cup silver last November - conceded it had hoped for better.
“We've had success this season. We've beaten every single person who is racing here, we've set speed records this year, track records this year,” he said.
“We know we can do it. We've got the equipment, we're not looking for excuses, we just had a bad day and it's unlucky that it was at the Olympics.
“We can go and race next year and be in the top three. That's the way it is. That's why it's so exciting.” Sportsbeat 2018