Sliding towards success: Great Britain relishing strong start to 2025 with bobsleigh and skeleton results
Britain is taking positive strides in the sliding disciplines as the arrival of 2025 is heralded with back-to-back successes ahead of the World Championships in March.
Great Britain will have an optimistic eye on the upcoming 2025 IBSF World Championships after its sliders launched 2025 with a bang.
On Sunday (7 January), Britain's four-man bobsleigh team claimed an impressive win at the second stop of the IBSF World Cup in Winterberg, Germany, snapping a winning streak boasted by the hosts stretching back to 2012 on the way.
Brad Hall, Taylor Lawrence, Arran Gulliver, and Greg Cackett finished the race with a combined time of one minute 48.07 seconds from their two runs, defeating Germany’s Olympic and world champion Francesco Friedrich and team by 0.19 seconds.
"To finish in first place here is incredible," Hall said following the race. "It's been a very long time since anyone other than the Germans have won here.
"We're extremely happy and we're now hoping this is a stepping stone to being on top of the podium a few more times this season before we hit the World Championships in March."
Hall, Lawrence, Gulliver, and Cackett aren’t the only British sliders beckoning the world title crowning event onwards.
Two days before the quartet's big win, British men’s skeleton star Matt Weston romped to victory in his World Cup race also in Winterberg, clocking 1 minute 53.12 seconds to take the win by more than half a second.
The 27-year-old, who became Britain’s first overall World Cup champion for 16 years in 2023/24, added the gold to a haul that already includes three silver medals and two bronze this season. The result also saw him overtake fellow countryman Marcus Wyatt for the head of the World Cup standings with just two races remaining.
"It feels good, very good! What a way to start the new year!" Weston said after. "I've been really consistent, with medals in every race of this season, but it's been a while since I won gold and I desperately wanted one today. To get that in the first race after Christmas means it's pretty much a dream start to 2025.”
He added: "I'm determined to retain my World Cup title and I want my World Championship crown back so today is a decent confidence boost.”
The 2025 IBSF World Championships, the impending target of Weston and Britain’s four-man bobsleigh team, will run from 3 to 16 March in Lake Placid, USA.
All five Britons will be eyeing podium finishes having previously enjoyed success at the event in the respective disciplines. Hall’s quartet claimed joint silver with Latvia in 2023 while Weston won the men’s in St. Moritz before taking silver last year in Winterberg.
Momentum gathered in 2025 will be regarded as precious with the Olympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026 on the horizon.
