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Men’s four-man bobsleigh: Taylor Austin snaps his visor into place, taps the bob, and that’s the sign for the sprint start, Canada fold into place smoothly, and it’s a decent run but not enough to trouble the leaders.
Men’s four-man bobsleigh: With their chunky build and primary colours, the sleighs remind me of those 10p-and-ride-me aeroplanes that you used to find at the supermarket.
Two Swiss teams, the South Koreans and Italians have rattled down, but none have troubled the top three places: with Germany one and two, and GB in third.
Men’s four-man bobsleigh: The Austrians hit the wall almost as soon as they’ve folded into position, bouncing off another for good measure, and finish, in bob-time, a huge +0.89 behind the leaders.
Men’s four-man bobsleigh: Team GB, in a royal blue bob are next. Brad Hall drives/steers? well and they’re very happy to slip into bronze. These are not slips of men, they’re big units and it is incredible how they fold into little balls.
Hang about, how many German teams are there? Germany two and Germany three are next in their bobs, but neither are as quick as Lochner’s quad.
We’re off, immediately, to the Cortina Sliding Centre. The first German team, under pilot Johannes Lochner, are ready: four of them sprinting, pushing the bobsleigh, and then hopping in like sardines into a tin – they rattle and roll along smash the track record immediately.
Aha! Hazel Irvine is on hand to remind me me that men’s four-man bob competition also gets underway today, and very soon.
Preamble
Good morning! Golds galore on this, the penultimate day of the Games. So let’s fold – we are in Italy – up our sleeves and get stuck in.
Gold, gold, gold on the slopes, in the skiing mixed team, men’s ski cross and women’s half pipe – where GB’s Zoe Atkin, the world champion, qualified in first place.
Gold number six dangles for Johannes Høsflot Klæbo in the legendary men’s 50km mass start, with other prizes for everyone else.
After lunch, more glistening gongs in the mixed relay of the ski mountaineering – really looking forward to this one - and gold in the women’ s 12.5k mass start biathlon – Norweigian red v French blue.
Away from the slopes, Bruce Mouat’s men get the medal match they’ve been waiting for, after a circumlocutious route, the battle for curling gold against Canada. That starts at 7.05pm GMT; while the women’s bronze match between the USA and Canada curls off this afternoon.
Thrills and spills in the speed skating, with the men’s and women’s mass starts from 4.40pm GMT. And on a different rink, the losing semi-finalists, Finland and Slovakia, fight for bronze in the men’s ice hockey.
One final gold of the day in the two-woman bobsleigh, just after nine. Germany’s Laura Nolte and Deborah Levi lead after the heats and are favourites for gold
There’s room on the sofa, jump on.
