Team GB Olympic medallist Joel Fearon wins bronze for Switzerland
- Published
Joel Fearon (far left) was retrospectively awarded Olympic bronze from Sochi 2014 last month
British bobsledder Joel Fearon has claimed his first medal for Switzerland following a third-place finish at the Europe Cup in Konigssee, Germany.
Fearon - awarded a retrospective Olympic bronze from Sochi 2014 last month - is on loan to the Swiss for the 2019-20 campaign.
A rule in bobsleigh allows athletes to represent other nations outside of the Olympics.
"I'm very pleased to win my first medal," he told BBC Sport.
"It gives me a lot of confidence. The (Swiss) guys have been lovely to me, they've turned into my brothers already and this medal shows I know what I'm talking about too."
Fearon came 11th on his debut last week with Timo Rohner, Maruan Giumma and Adrian Faessler, but the same line-up improved in their second event together.
Unfunded British Olympians Brad Hall and Greg Cackett finished sixth in Friday's two-man event, but were forced to miss Saturday's four-man race due to an injury to Alan Toward.
They recruited Adam Baird for Sunday's race and finished 12th despite the newcomer beginning the race inside the bobsleigh and not pushing with his team-mates, due to their lack of practice time together.
"It's been tough this week as I've seen Brad (Hall) struggling and not having enough athletes and I really did everything I could to help him but he did a good job and had a really good race," says Fearon.
The former 100m runner - whose personal best of 9.96secs puts him joint fifth in the British all-time standings - hopes to compete on the World Cup circuit in the second half of the season once the events move to Europe in the New Year.
The first events he could potentially contest in 2020 include the four-man World Cup event in Winterberg, Germany on 3 January with the venue also doubling up to host the European Championships the following day.