Best World Cup result equalled
Mica Mcneill equalled her bestever World Cup Bobsleigh result on Sunday as the British number one finished fourth in Igls, Austria, with fellow Brit Brad Hall securing a top six spot just hours later.
Mcneill teamed up with former British 100m record holder Montell Douglas for the team’s first race of the new season. They clocked a combined 1 min 48.13secs, jumping up from tied fourth at halfway to outright fourth, just outside the medal spots.
The pair had missed the opening two World Cup races after a positive Covid test amongst their wider group, while teammate Victoria Williamson was sent home with injury before this event.
They registered top five start times in each run for a result matching their previous best in January 2019.
Mcneill also finished fifth in just her third competitive women’s monobob race.
For the men, Halls secured a superb sixth, 24 hours after seventh in his season opener. Hall teamed up with Nick Gleeson for the first time since they equalled GB’S best two-man World Championship result with joint-fourth in March 2019, before then joining forces with Greg Cackett.
Hall missed the opening two races through ankle injury. Cackett and Hall finished just 0.01 seconds behind fifth and only six hundredths from fourth on Sunday.
James Dasaolu became arguably the fastest man to push a bobsleigh for any nation on the World Cup circuit as he made his top tier debut alongside Lamin Deen. Dasaolu has clocked 9.91 seconds over 100m and finished 19th in both races with four-man specialist Deen.
In the skeleton, Matt Weston came within a whisker of another World Cup medal after Marcus Wyatt secured a first in seven years two weeks ago. Weston was tied for the lead at halfway before eventually missing out on a medal by just 13 hundredths of a second after a combined time of 1:45.67 with the third fastest start in run 1 and the fifth fastest in run 2.
RAF member Benji Fulker finished 12th on World Cup debut with 1:46.54, while Jerry Rice was 16th in his first World Cup race of the season.