Bobsleigh World Cup: Great Britain win bronze for first podium since 2013

Britain earned a first bobsleigh World Cup podium place since 2013 as Bradley Hall guided his crew to a bronze medal in the United States.

Hall and his team of Bruce Tasker, Greg Cackett and Joel Fearon led after the first run, but slipped behind winners Germany and hosts USA after the second in Park City, Utah.

Their combined time of one minute 35.56 seconds was just 0.12secs off gold.

The GBR 2 team, led by Sochi Olympian Lamin Deen, finished sixth.

Fearon and Tasker were part of the last British team to win a medal, when they finished second with John Jackson and Stuart Benson in Lake Placid, USA four years ago.

"More than anything I'm proud," Fearon told BBC Sport. "We've been through a lot and had nothing easy this year but we're still here and still fighting."

The squad endured a difficult summer, with GB Bobsleigh head coach Lee Johnston accused making a racist comment in 2013, while athletes also alleged bullying, sexism and discrimination in a "toxic atmosphere" in the British set-up.

Performance director Gary Anderson - who was not implicated in the claims - left for personal reasons and the governing body's chief executive Richard Parker resigned following an overspend which resulted in the women's bobsleigh team stripped of support.

Lead women's pilot Mica McNeill and breakwoman Mica Moore raised over £30,000 in public donations to secure their place at the World Cup, where they have finished eighth and 13th in the opening races of the season.

'This is a big step towards the Olympics'

Hall's team raced together for the first time at February's World Championships but had not competed together since.

And that unfamiliarity was evident in the first of two races over the weekend following the cancellation of the season-opening four-man event in Lake Placid last week.

On Friday, the lead British quartet finished 22nd, with Dean's sled eighth. However, former decathlete Hall, 27, recovered to eclipse his previous best of eighth at March's Olympic Test event in Pyeongchang, South Korea.

"We had an awful day on Friday, so to bounce back says a huge amount about their character," said coach Johnston.

"One swallow doesn't make a summer but this is a big step towards where we want to be come the Olympics."

It is only the second time a British sled has finished on a World Cup podium since 1997, when Sean Olsson led his team to bronze in La Plagne the season before matching that feat at the Nagano Olympics in 1998.

The World Cup season next heads to Canada with the third round of the campaign taking place in Whistler from 24-25 November.