ByJess AndersonBBC Sport journalist in Cortina<\/p>\n
Team GB face an uphill task to win an Olympic medal in the four-man bobsleigh as they sit seventh at the halfway point in a race where three teams crashed.<\/p>\n
Pilot Brad Hall had showcased why the British team are medal contenders in Cortina with a brilliant first run of 54.39 seconds, which placed them third.<\/p>\n
But he was left looking stunned and emotional after they dropped off the pace in the second, losing four places in the standings.<\/p>\n
They now sit 0.23secs off the bronze medal position before Sunday's podium-deciding heats.<\/p>\n
The three German teams remain the ones to beat and they occupy the top three spots with Johannes Lochner, who won two-man gold earlier this week, leading the charge with an overall time of 1:48:61. <\/p>\n
There was a long delay to competition at the Cortina sliding track after Austria suffered a crash during heat two, with one of the athletes treated for a lengthy period on the ice before being stretchered off.<\/p>\n
Action resumed after about a 20-minute delay but, with the track now slower because of the rising temperature, the British team were unable to find the speed of their first run and currently sit on 1:49:43.<\/p>\n
France then suffered a crash in heat two before Trinidad and Tobago, piloted by Harrogate-born Axel Brown<\/a>, were the last to run and also crashed.<\/p>\n Hall finished 12th in the two-man earlier this week, but said he is targeting a first medal in 12 years with his four-man team.<\/p>\n Team Hall finished sixth four years ago in Beijing and the last Olympic cycle has been a fruitful one.<\/p>\n Hall is the most successful British men's pilot in World Cup history with 30 race medals, and guided his team to a first world championship medal since 1939 when they took silver in Switzerland in 2023.<\/p>\n That came after a first-ever European title in Altenberg earlier that year.<\/p>\n Following that success, the sport received a boost in funding from UK Sport, having been cut in 2019 following poor results at Pyeongchang 2018.<\/p>\n Training in Cortina has not been perfect, with the team clocking times outside the top five on five of the six runs.<\/p>\n Things looked promising after run one and the team fist-pumped and banged the sled in celebration as they came up the finish straight.<\/p>\n But mistakes in run two proved costly and their time of 55.04secs was only the 12th-quickest in run two, leaving medal hopes hanging by a thread.<\/p>\n Team GB have not won an Olympic bobsleigh medal since Sochi 12 years ago, where the four-man team won bronze. <\/p>\n Meanwhile, the medal-deciding runs for the two-woman event take place later on Saturday, with Team GB's Adele Nicoll and Ashleigh Nelson 21st at the halfway point.<\/p>\n Day-by-day guide to the Winter Olympics<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n Full schedule including times of medal events<\/p>\n <\/a><\/li>\n Winter Olympics 2026 medal table<\/p>\n <\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n Winter Olympics 2026<\/strong><\/p>\n 6-22 February<\/p>\n Milan-Cortina<\/p>\n Watch on iPlayer<\/a>Listen on Sounds<\/a><\/p>\n Watch two live streams and highlights on BBC iPlayer (UK only), updates on BBC Radio 5 Live and live text commentary and video highlights on the BBC Sport website and app. <\/p>\n Full coverage guide<\/a><\/p>\n Team GB face uphill task for four-man bobsleigh medalImage source, Getty ImagesImage caption, Team GB finished 12th in the two-man event but are targeting the podium in the four-manByJess AndersonBBC…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":8445,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_container_layout":"default_layout","colormag_page_sidebar_layout":"default_layout","footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8444","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-decor"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp1.niviyo.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8444","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp1.niviyo.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp1.niviyo.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp1.niviyo.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8444"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wp1.niviyo.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8444\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp1.niviyo.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8445"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp1.niviyo.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8444"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp1.niviyo.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8444"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp1.niviyo.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8444"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
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