Hall and Cackett create history with World Cup silver for Britain

Great Britain bobsleigh history was made yesterday when unfunded duo Bradley Hall and Greg Cackett secured a first World Cup two-man medal.

Pilot Hall and brakeman Cackett, in just their third two-man race together, took silver in Igls, Austria, behind Francesco Friedrich and Thorsten Margis, of Germany.

It was Britain’s best two-man finish in the sport’s top-tier World Cup competition since official records began and first World Cup bobsleigh medal for a British duo since Nicola Minichiello and Gillian Cooke won silver in the women’s competition 11 years ago.

The result came seven days after Hall and Cackett – recently back in bobsleigh after moving to cycling after the 2018 Winter Olympics – missed the podium in La Plagne, France, by just 18 hundredths of a second. The duo, like the entire British team, are self-funded after losing UK Sport backing for the 2022 Olympic cycle. “If you told us last week that we were going to finish in the top six two weeks in a row, let alone fourth and second, we wouldn’t have believed you,” said Hall, after he and Cackett moved up a place following their first run to finish second in an overall time of 1min 44.61sec, which left them 0.74sec behind the winners.

“These last two weeks have been really tough – me and Greg have been feeling under the weather – but to be stood on the podium with a silver medal around our necks is really, really special. To be rewriting history at this stage in our careers is amazing.”

The medal is the pair’s second on the World Cup circuit, with Hall having piloted Cackett and 2014 Olympic bronze medallists Joel Fearon and Bruce Tasker to four-man bronze in Park City in November 2017.