WINTER OLYMPICS: Sussex bobsleigh star Brad Hall defies all expectations in South Korea

Sussex star Brad Hall is on course to reach the final of the Two-Man Bobsleigh event at the Winter Olympics.
Team GB pilot and former Crawley AC decathlete Brad Hall, right, in action with Joel Fearon compete in heat one of the Two-Man Bobsleigh event held at the Sliding Centre at PyeongChang in South Korea.
Picture by Graham Carter SUS-180218-130601002Team GB pilot and former Crawley AC decathlete Brad Hall, right, in action with Joel Fearon compete in heat one of the Two-Man Bobsleigh event held at the Sliding Centre at PyeongChang in South Korea.
Picture by Graham Carter SUS-180218-130601002
Team GB pilot and former Crawley AC decathlete Brad Hall, right, in action with Joel Fearon compete in heat one of the Two-Man Bobsleigh event held at the Sliding Centre at PyeongChang in South Korea. Picture by Graham Carter SUS-180218-130601002

He laid the foundations for success in the Four-Man event by finishing Day Nine in a healthy seventh place from a field of 30 bobsleigh teams.

Competing with one of the fastest sprinters in the country, Joel Fearon, the former Crawley AC decathlete established himself as one of the budding talents of the sport.

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Despite posting some average practise times in the run-up to the event, Hall, 27, showed great speed and skill while competing in the weakest of Team GB’s sliding events, the Two-Man Bobsleigh.

Team GB bobsleigh star Brad Hall in action in Heat 2.
Picture by Graham Carter SUS-180218-161708002Team GB bobsleigh star Brad Hall in action in Heat 2.
Picture by Graham Carter SUS-180218-161708002
Team GB bobsleigh star Brad Hall in action in Heat 2. Picture by Graham Carter SUS-180218-161708002

At the end of Heat Two, pilot Hall combined with brakeman Fearon to climb up to seventh place on the leaderboard behind Nico Walther of Germany (1.38.39s) who is in first place.

Hall is in an excellent position to make the cut for the fourth and final Heat to be held tomorrow afternoon.

After a thrilling first day’s competition, Hall and Fearon recorded a combined time of 1.38.87 over the first two runs and finished just 0.48s behind Walther and 0.19s behind another German, Johannes Lochner who is in third.

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Before Monday afternoon’s final medal-deciding contest, Heat Four, they must go again in Heat Three of the gruelling competition to be held on Day Ten (Monday), starting at 11.15am.

The Two-Man Bobsleigh leaderboard after Heat 1.
Picture by Graham Carter SUS-180218-171757002The Two-Man Bobsleigh leaderboard after Heat 1.
Picture by Graham Carter SUS-180218-171757002
The Two-Man Bobsleigh leaderboard after Heat 1. Picture by Graham Carter SUS-180218-171757002

The heat will continue until 12.20pm when the cut will be made to decide who will appear in the afternoon’s run which will settle the final positions and who will be this Olympics’ medal-winners. Heat Four begins at 12.35pm.

All the build-up, action and replays of Hall in top class action on South Korea are being shown on TV on BBC1 and BBC2 on Monday from 11.15am until 6pm.

On Sunday full-time bobsledder Hall was placed in a superb seventh position at the end of the morning’s Heat One, with a better than expected time of 49.37s which was just 0.29 seconds behind the early leader Oskars Melbardis.

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The Latvian, tipped to be a future Olympic champion, completed the exciting run in 49.08s.

In second place was Canadian Justin Kripps while Germany’s hotly-tipped Nico Walther was in third, 0.04s off the lead.