World Championships

This weekend St Moritz hosted the Bobsleigh World Championships and it was the turn of the 4 man bobsleigh. GB entered 2 crews into the Championships which were held over 2 days, with 2 runs a day. There were 26 crews entered into the Championships from 17 different nations.

The GB1 sled was driven by Royal Marine Lee Johnston and his crew consisted of Corporal Steve Smith (ARMY), and Allyn Condon and Dan Money who were recruited to BobTeamGB from Athletics this season by Performance Director Richard Simmons. Condon is a medal winner at Commonwealth, European and World Championships and he and Money have been part of the new dimension that Simmons has brought to the squad.

The GB2 sled was driven by Army Corporal Neil Scarisbrick and his crew consisted of Royal Marine John Jackson, Captain Karl Johnston (Royal Marine) and Richard Sharman from the Royal Air Force.

After the first 2 runs on day 1, the GB1 crew were lying in 6th position. They had average start times in a sled 40kg heavier than the competition, but Lee Johnston had 2 excellent drives down the historic St Moritz track. The GB2 sled was lying in 13th. Neil and his crew had had average starts but again, the driving by Neil was exceptional.

On day 2, the GB1 sled had the fastest finish time in the 3rd run, beating all the other teams down the mountain, this moved Lee and his crew up into 5th position overall. This was especially impressive as they had some of the slower starts in the race. The GB2 sled also had an excellent run, getting the 6th fastest finish time in the 3rd run off a slow start. This moved the GB2 sled into tied 9th position with 2 other nations. There was everything to play for in the final run.

In the final run the top 20 teams slide, with the fastest team sliding last. The GB2 crew improved upon their start time by 4/100th second in the last run and Neil had another consistent run down the track. He beat the other 2 teams who had tied him for 9th place after the 3rd run, thereby achieving no worst than 9th position. The GB1 sled was the 16th sled to go. Lee and his crew improved upon their start time by 5/100th second and Lee had yet another great drive. They finished with a combined time of 4 minutes 21.63 seconds which was good enough to keep them in 5th place ahead of the Russia I crew. Although the top 4 sleds moved around with positions, nobody finished slower than Lee. Achieving 5th place in a World Championships is excellent and Lee and the boys were on the podium receiving their well deserved medals. The World Championships will be broadcast on Channel 4 on Feb 18th during the morning so all this can be seen.

The bobsleigh season is not over yet with 3 more races to go until the end of the season. Let's hope that the team can continue to build on this momentum.

The Women 2 Man race took place on Fri 2 and Sat 3 Feb with the GB1 sled piloted by Nicola Minichiello (brakewoman Lauren Therin) finishing in 16th place. The GB2 sled piloted by Jackie Davies (brakewoman Paula Walker) finished in 14th place. Both Jackie and Paula are Junior Non Commissioned Officers in the Royal Signals and this is Jackies first full season as a driver having braked for Nicola Minichiello in last years Olympic Games. Lauren Therin is another of Richard Simmons' new recruits from GB Athletics and currently AAA U23 Javelin Champion.