McNeill records 'bittersweet' best-ever World Cup performance
BySportsbeat
Published 05/01/2019 at 21:26 GMT
Mica McNeill and Montell Douglas described their best-ever World Cup finish as ‘bittersweet' after missing out on the medals in Altenberg.
Eurosport
Image credit: Eurosport
The British bobsleigh duo led the pack after the opening run but let slip their lead after a mistake-ridden second attempt.
Careering across the finish line in 59.51 seconds, the Brits managed to work themselves into fourth spot despite a controversial start that saw McNeil struck by a projectile
from the crowd.
The pair were originally awarded sixth spot, but a revised time saw McNeil and brake woman Douglas promoted up to fourth to record a best ever World Cup result.
Yet despite finishing outside the medal places by just 0.04 seconds behind four-time World Champion Elana Meyers Taylor, McNeill was able to take the positives from the outing
in Germany.
"We're very happy to have a personal best World Cup result," she said.
"The timing gates didn't go off so we had to use the ‘B' gates and we also had the cup situation that got thrown at us.
"But we are happy with the result. It's a great building block to move towards the World Championships."
Germans Mariama Jamanka and Annika Drazek took top spot on the track by finishing in a time of 1:57.25 to maintain their place at the top of the overall standings.
And British brake woman Douglas could only echo the sentiments of her teammate after missing out on a first career World Cup medal.
She said: "It's definitely a bittersweet result today but there lots of great things to take from the race.
"The focus for the race was to improve some minor things and we did that. And to achieve a best-ever World Cup result with much more still to give, we've got to be happy."
The pair will target another impressive display when they are back in action next week in Königssee after recording a seventh place finish at the season's opening World Cup in
Winterburg.
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