Mica McNeill and Montell Douglas started the season rolling with the fastest time in each of the two runs on the second stop of their early season tour of America and Canada. The British pair were 0.36 seconds ahead of silver medalists and home favourites Nicole Vogt and Terra Evans and almost a second clear of China’s bronze medal winning crew in Utah.
The win was McNeill’s second North American Cup success and her 12th top three finish in 22 races on that circuit over the past six years.It was a first NAC gold for 2008 summer Olympian and former British 100m record holder Douglas and a second win overall, following on from her Europa Cup triumph with McNeill in Winterberg in January 2017.
In the men’s 2-man bobsleigh, Brad Hall and Nick Gleeson made it on to the wider podium as they finished fourth of 25 sleds at the same track. Hall, who drove the GB 4-man crew to World Cup bronze at that venue a year ago, missed out on the same colour medal by five hundredths of a second after clocking an overall time of 1 minute 38.51 seconds.
Fellow Olympian Lamin Deen placed 12th in a race won by Monaco’s Rudy Rinaldi after he and John Baines posted a time of 1 minute 39.14 seconds.
The British pair of McNeill and Douglas backed up Monday evening’s opening win in Park City with an even more clear cut success at the same venue on Tuesday afternoon. McNeill and Douglas finished more than half a second ahead of the silver medal crew from China and an incredible 2.46 seconds in front of the Australian team who finished fourth.
Their combined two-run time of 1 minute 40.67 seconds was similar to their winning effort less than 24 hours earlier, with their first run time of 50.06 seconds identical to the same run the day before. Victory now means McNeill has won three NAC gold medals in her career and has finished in the top three on 13 occasions.
In the men’s 2-man races, Brad Hall and Adam Hames just missed out on a bronze medal as they finished fourth in 1 minute 38.74 seconds, 0.17 seconds behind the Swiss team in third.
Lamin Deen and Axel Brown joined their team-mates on the wider podium as they placed sixth of 25 sleds in a time of 1 minute 38.87, just 13 hundredths behind Hall and Hames. “It was another solid race day and I’m a happy coach,” said British Bobsleigh Head Coach, Lee Johnston.
“Back-to-back gold medals is great to see, so a big ‘well done’ to Mica and Montell.
“All the crews made small improvements on the whole and I’m really pleased to see that."
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