A SUSSEX man's hopes of medal success in the two-man bobsleigh at this year's Winter Olympics are all but over after a poor start to the first night of competition.

Brad Hall from Crawley and Nick Gleeson had looked in good shape to fight for a podium finish after overcoming funding concerns to claim three top-three finishes during the World Cup season, along with a series of impressive practice runs on the Beijing track.

However, Brad was only 11th fastest in his first run, some 0.67 seconds behind Germany's reigning champion Francesco Friedrich, which extended to 1.36 seconds after his second run.

The final two runs of the competition are scheduled for this afternoon.

Hall expressed disappointment after the performances, which left Team GB trailing the likes of Latvia and Monaco.

He said: "It hasn’t been the best day. We’ve had a couple of runs, a couple of mistakes on both runs and that’s unfortunate.

"We’re hoping to go back and correct our mistakes and hopefully climb a few spots."

Brad is also hoping for medal success in the four-man event, which takes place later this week.

Prior to the start of the Games in Beijing, Brad said he was "full of confidence" after a strong season.

He said: "We've had a great season so far and we're hoping to carry that momentum into the Games.

"We said at the start of the season that we wanted to be competing with the best in the world on a consistent basis and we've shown that we can do that.

"The boys have regularly been among the best starters in the world, too, and we're heading to Beijing full of confidence."

Beijing will be Brad's second Winter Olympics, having also competed in the Pyeongchang Games in South Korea in 2018.

Team GB have yet to gain any medals so far in the Games, with Norway leading in the medal table, followed by Germany, and the United States. Hosts China are currently sixth in the table.

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