Britain's most successful four-man bobsleigh team looks back on historic season
Great Britain's medal winning four-man bobsleigh team have spoken of their successful year on the international bobsleigh circuit, which includes a World Championship silver medal and a gold medal at the European Championships.
The team, which includes Royal Marine Taylor Lawrence, along with driver Brad Hall, Greg Cackett and Aaron Gulliver, also finished second in the World Cup standings, making them the most successful British four-man bobsleigh team in history.
Speaking to BFBS Forces Sport at the Inter Services Ice Sports Championships in Lillehammer, Norway, driver Brad Hall said that the team's success was "much of a surprise".
He said: "It was much of a surprise to us, we thought it was going to be a first year of an Olympic cycle so it was going to be a bit of a rebuild year.
"Nick Gleeson is in the Army, he was going to become a pilot, so we knew we needed to find someone to come in and take his place, but we found a great new guy, Aaron Gulliver, and we had fast starts right from the beginning of the season and we started bringing the medals straight away and we knew from that point that the season was going to be something quite special."
The team started off the year with winning medal hauls on the world cup circuit before upsetting the dominant German team, led by Olympic Champion Francesco Friedrich, on home turf at the European Championships, which Mne Taylor Lawrence said was the "cherry on the cake".
He said: "The first weekend where we won that gold medal in the World Cup and then do it back-to-back weekends, and especially being European Champions as well, that really is the cherry on the cake.
"So that's probably, if not, my best memory so far of bobsleigh and, hopefully, there's many more of those to come."
The British team were unable to replicate their World Cup and European championship success at the World Championships in St Moritz, where they had to settle for silver behind Germany's Francesco Friedrich.
Mne Lawrence said: "It was really nice to have that competition with the Germans, we are friends off the track and friends on the track as well, so it's good that they are seeing us come through and they know we are there, so yes, we are a force to be reckoned with."
Mne Lawrence, along with Hall, were present at last week's Inter Services Ice Sports Championships on supporting and coaching duties. GB Bobsleigh Head Coach Graham Richardson was also in attendance after a year of guiding Britain's four-man bobsleigh team to international recognition.
With a big historical background with the military and bobsleigh, Richardson hopes that they will try to find "a few more Taylors" among the crop of military sledders at the Inter Services.
He said: "Taylor is phenomenal, the trouble is he's sometimes too phenomenal, he has got that kind of Royal Marine can-do attitude and doesn't really like to say if something is bothering him or niggling him.
"So generally, one of the big fights we are going to have is making sure that we keep everybody healthy and, of course, Taylor was doing a lot of two-man and four-man this year being the athlete he is.
"So doing training for two and then racing for two is somewhere where the team is lacking a little bit of depth at the moment, so that's something else we are looking for with talent ID, trying to find a few more Taylors, a few more Gregs and a few more Aarons."
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