Great Britain in medal contention at the halfway mark of the four-man bobsleigh

Brad Hall has steered his four-man Great Britain bobsleigh team within 0.31 seconds of an Olympic medal after the first two runs of the competition at Yanqing Sliding Centre.

Hall, Greg Cackett, Nick Gleeson and Taylor Lawrence sit in sixth position at the halfway stage, with two German crews and Canada’s Justin Kripps making up the medal positions ahead of the event’s conclusion on Sunday.

It marks an impressive response from Hall, a three-time four-man World Cup medallist this season, after overturning his sled in the two-man competition last Tuesday.

“We’re feeling pretty good,” said Hall, who was forced to essentially self-fund his route to the Games after UK Sport funding for the bobsleigh programme was ended after the Pyeongchang Games four years ago.

But while the £6.5million British skeleton programme has floundered, Hall has worked hard to put his team in contention for what would be a first four-man medal since John Jackson was awarded retrospective bronze from Sochi in 2014.

“There were a couple of mistakes on the first run but it wasn’t a bad performance. I’m quite content with sixth place,” added Hall.

“The Germans have got three sleds, three times the amount of runs to test everything and find the best way down the track, and make sure the equipment works.

“We’re against it, we’ve got less resources to pull upon, so we’ve just gone with what we know and we’ll see how it turns out.”