Taylor Lawrence sits out Olympic two-man finale as Team GB finishes twelfth overall
Royal Marine Commando Taylor Lawrence was absent for the final two heats of the two-man bobsleigh competition at the Olympic Winter Games in Cortina after he withdrew from the final runs as a precautionary measure.
Lawrence pushed teammate and bobsleigh pilot Brad Hall in the first two runs of the two-man on Monday, but made the last-minute decision not to push Hall in runs three and four on Tuesday after experiencing some discomfort, in order to protect him for this weekend's four-man competition.
The Royal Marine posted on Instagram that he experienced a "slight calf niggle" during warmups, which comes after he sat out most of the World Cups after suffering a calf year earlier in the season.
Leon Greenwood substituted in for Taylor Lawrence to make his Olympic debut in runs three and four with Brad Hall, where the British team rounded up in 12th place overall with a combined overall time of 3:43:43.
Speaking to the media after the event, Brad Hall said: "I'm quite happy with how things ended up – not in the way of the two-man result, but in terms of preparation for the four-man.
"Taylor was a bit tight, and so we decided not to risk putting him in today. We knew we weren't in it for the medals in the two-man after the first day, and so we wanted to keep him safe so he was ready to perform at the weekend."
The competition was dominated by the three top teams from Germany, where they secured a clean sweep of the podium with Johannes Lochner winning the gold.
Francesco Friedrich, the gold medalist in both Beijing in 2022 and PyeongChang in 2018, had to settle for silver, with Adam Ammour winning the bronze.
The British team will continue their preparation for the four-man competition, which begins on 21 February, where they hope to improve on their sixth place finish in Beijing.
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