Westgate resident and military man Taylor Lawrence and his teammates have taken gold at the International Bobsled and Skeleton Federation World Cup.
The competition in Lake Placid, USA, saw the bobsledders take the medal after beating the current world champions, Germany
Thanet ace Taylor is a serving Royal Marine and only started bobsleigh in 2019 when he was drafted into Brad Hall’s injury-hit crew.
Two years later his place at the Olympics was secured, forming part of Britain’s four-man team led by pilot Hall that came in sixth place.
Now Taylor, Hall, Cackett, and Arran Gulliver – who has stepped into the place of former team mate Nick Gleeson- have won Britain’s second-ever 4-man bobsleigh World Cup gold.
The gold adds to a tally of medals for 2021/22, which saw a hat-trick of silver medals in the World Cup 4-man competition in Winterberg (twice) and Igls.
Taylor, 26, said: “It has been such an amazing feeling. We have been knocking on the door of the gold medal for so long. We have been chipping away, silver after silver, so to finally come away with that gold medal, it seems all of the hard work we put in over the last couple of seasons has finally come to fruition. To pick it up in the four-man, where you can enjoy it with all the other boys, just makes it so much sweeter.
“Brad was driving well and all the boys were pushing well and a shout out for Arran Gulliver whose recently just joined the team, to come into a world class team, and start pushing world class times within his first season is absolutely incredible.
“This is a man who has had three 4-man races and come away with a silver medal in one and a gold medal in another.
“It is really nice to see we have strength and depth now and hopefully will take this momentum through the second part of the season and accrue some more medals and hopefully come away with a world champs medal and some globes at the end of it.”
Earlier this month Taylor also won the Royal Navy Sportsman of the Year award .
Taylor Lawrence snippets
- Nickname: Tay
- Most likely to be spotted: in the gym
- Least likely to be found: in a 9-5 job
- Me in three: big, competitive, proactive
- Heroes: my Dad because he’s always supported me in everything I do and is my biggest fan
- Random fact: I have a twin sister
- If I wasn’t a slider: I would continue my career as a Royal Marine Commando