CONSETT bobsleigh driver Mica McNeill teamed up with former Olympic sprinter Montell Douglas for the first time at the weekend as the pair came within 25 hundredths of a second of claiming a European Championship medal.

With the fourth World Cup event of the year in Winterberg, Germany, doubling up as the European Championships, McNeill got the first chance to race with Douglas, who has taken up bobsleigh in an attempt to qualify for next year’s Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang.

With Douglas slotting in as the brake-woman, McNeill finished tenth overall in the World Cup standings, a result that enabled her to claim seventh position in the recalculated European Championship standings.

The Northern Echo:

Racing in snowy conditions, McNeill, who is now based at British Bobsleigh’s high-performance centre at the University of Bath, recorded times of 57.84s and 58.01s.

That left her just 0.25s outside the European Championship medals, and confirmed her rapid progress since stepping up to the senior stage a couple of years ago.

America’s reigning world champion Elana Meyers-Taylor took the World Cup title, with German Mariama Jamanka making the most of home advantage to claim the European gold and World Cup silver.

McNeill will be back in action this weekend, with the World Cup series moving on to St Moritz in Switzerland, with her season building towards the World Championships in the German resort of Konigsee in the middle of next month.


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EMILY SARSFIELD claimed successive top-20 finishes in last weekend’s two rounds of the Ski Cross World Cup in the Italian resort of Watles.

Sarsfield, who is from Durham, was controversially omitted from the British team for the last Winter Olympics in Sochi, having lost an appeal against her initial non-selection.

However, she has continued competing in the hope of making her Winter Olympic debut in Pyeongchang next year, with her form since the turn of the year suggesting she is more than capable of claiming an automatic place in the Olympic line-up.

The Northern Echo:

She was the best-performing Briton as she finished in 20th position in the first round of competition, and went one better as she came 19th in the second run.

Those performances earned her 23 World Cup ranking points, with her season total of 92 points seeing her comfortably inside the world top 20. If she was to maintain that position through to the Winter Olympic cut-off point, she would secure an automatic place in Pyeongchang.

Liz Stevenson is the next highest-ranked Briton, down in 30th position, with Sarsfield due to return to action when the World Cup series moves on to Feldberg, in Germany, on February 5.