Winter Olympics: Germany's sled led by Francesco Friedrich wins four-man bobsleigh gold

Germany cruised to victory in the Winter Olympic four-man bobsleigh while there was a tie for the silver medal.

The German sled, piloted by Francesco Friedrich, won by 0.53 seconds while South Korea and the second German crew shared second.

The gold for Friedrich follows his win in the two-man event, making him only the second man to win in both disciplines in the past 30 years.

Great Britain's crews disappointed and finished 17th and 18th.

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Brad Hall's sled finished 2.41secs off the lead while the team piloted by Lamin Deen was 0.03secs further back.

It follows a difficult year for British Bobsleigh after BBC Sport revealed in June that GB athletes had written to the governing body to complain of "bullying, racism, sexism and discrimination".

Head coach Dominik Scherrer resigned, less than five months before the Pyeongchang Games, while the women's team had its funding withdrawn in September.

The British women's pair of Mica McNeill and Mica Moore finished eighth in their event after a crowdfunding initiative raised £40,000 to help them compete at the Games.

On the men's performance, BBC Sport commentator and two-time British Olympic bobsleigher John Jackson said: "I think it will have funding implications because UK Sport are really tight on their targets. If they'd set a top-five target and we'd finished sixth or seventh then you could argue we're almost there.

"But to have a top-five target and finish 18th, 19th, then you're nowhere near."

Despite his sled's slowest time coming in the final run, Friedrich comfortably won gold with a combined time of three minutes 15.85 seconds

Fellow German Andre Lange is the only other pilot to win in both the four-man and two-man Olympic events since 1984, doing so in 2006.

'It has gone drastically wrong for GB' - analysis

BBC Sport Olympic sport reporter Nick Hope

No 'worst case scenario' predications would have seen the two GB men's four-man sleds finish so low in the field.

They have the technology and talent to genuinely push for the top six and lower medal positions, but it's gone dramatically and drastically wrong.

Big questions will now be asked by UK Sport about how over £5m of investment has actually been spent.

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