Nick Gleeson says he’d push pilot Brad Hall until his legs fall off and he will need to do all that and more to get Britain in two-man medal contention.
Things did not go to Hall’s immaculately devised plan on the opening day of men’s bobsleigh competition in Yanqing, which ended with Britain in 11th place.
Sliding events so far on the world’s first 360-degree track have seen mistakes brutally punished and the 31-year-old driver made at least four of them across the first two runs.
“It’s quite frustrating,” said Hall. “We wanted to be a few places higher than where we are now and it’s not what we planned.
“We made a couple of mistakes in the middle of the track on both runs which left us without speed at the bottom. It hasn’t been the best day and that’s unfortunate.
“Unfortunately we’re not higher up but we don’t deserve to be at the moment.
“We will look back to see where we went wrong, make the corrections for tomorrow and hopefully climb a few places.”
There were excellent sections in both efforts, particularly the push start which was strong enough for a medal and more. But Hall and Gleeson bled time on key sections and managed a combined time of 1:59.74, a full 1.36 seconds off the pace.
The cream rose to the top in the shape of Germany’s Francesco Friedrich, who has only lost two two-man races in the last two seasons.
Two fine runs gave Friedrich a lead of 0.15 seconds on the rest of the field - but still the man they call ‘Frederick the Great’ wasn’t content.
“With the first run we are happy,” said the German. “The second run we have the mistake outside corner 6 and outside corner 12 that we have to fix tomorrow.
“We’ll give our all to keep this place. It’s a good day tomorrow but a hard day tomorrow, the second run must be better.”
That’s the level of perfection that Hall is chasing and the second German sled, driven by Johannes Lochner, is Friedrich’s closest challenger.
That pair are nearly a second ahead of the rest of the world at the halfway mark.
“They’ve definitely got a massive advantage,” said Hall. “Germany pump millions of pounds into their research and development every year.
“Their two man sleds are definitely far superior to anyone else’s.”
Hall and team have been propelled by a siege mentality this season that has taken them to fifth in the world, a medal at the Beijing test event and three World Cup gongs.
Gleeson knows the squad are representing more than just themselves in Beijing, but a group of people who rallied behind them when funding was summarily cut in 2019.
“Everyone knows they [Germany] have got a massive bucket of money to dip into. They are right at the top funding wise,” said Gleeson.
“And obviously then there’s like us at the bottom.
“I think everyone’s been there at one point in their life, using their own money to find sponsors and get where they need to be.
“I think within the bobsleigh family and the sliding family, everyone knows the hardships and that it’s an expensive sport.
“Everybody is willing to help out everyone else and the people that have helped us, we cannot thank them enough.”
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