GB bobsleighers win silver & bronze in Americas Cup

Pilot Mica McNeill won silver at the 2012 Youth Olympics in Innsbruck, Austria

British bobsleighers won silver and bronze medals in the season-opening Americas Cup event in Park City, USA.

Youth Olympian Mica McNeill and Sian Huxtable finished second in the two-man competition behind USA's Winter Olympic bronze medallist Jamie Greuble.

Lamin Deen piloted Britain to bronze in Saturday's men's four-man race.

"We have some really exciting potential in the squad right now," said GB Bobsleigh performance director Gary Anderson.

Canadian Kaillie Humphries and USA's Elana Meyers-Taylor became the first women pilots to race internationally in a sanctioned four-man bobsleigh competition.

In September, the International Bobsleigh and Skeleton Federation, the sport's governing body, announced a major rule change allowing women to compete in the event.

Humphries and Meyers-Taylor finished sixth and seventh respectively in Park City and, if they compete in two more events, will qualify for the top-tier World Cup circuit beginning in Lake Placid on 12 December.

Leading British pilot John Jackson, part of the GB four-man bob that finished fifth at the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics, will miss much of this season with a recurrence of an Achilles problem, while partner Paula Walker is taking a break because she is pregnant.

"It's been a great start to the season and there's a great feeling amongst the squad," said Anderson, who recently signed a new contract taking him through to the 2018 Games in PyeongChang, South Korea.

"After Sochi we had a comprehensive review of our operations and everything is geared to winning a medal in 2018."

At the season-opening Europa Cup event in Innsbruck - the same tier as the Americas Cup - Youth Olympic pilot Olly Biddulph claimed a career-best finish of 12th.

Fellow Briton Nikki McSweeney, who was McNeill's breakman when the pair won world junior bronze in 2013, came 10th in her debut as a pilot alongside Codie Burnett in the two-man event.

Athletes are bidding for places in the British World Cup squad with positions available for two males - in the two-man and four-man bob - and two females in the two-man event.