Cool running Mark Lewis-Francis bags top 10 finish

The Darlaston Dart, who sprinted to 100m Olympic gold in Athens in 2004, has recently revealed ambitions of reaching the 2018 Winter Olympics in South Korea.

He has spent the last couple of months training at Team GB's bobsleigh headquarters at the University of Bath but flew out to Winterberg early last week to compete for the first time.

In his debut run on Friday, in a two-man Bob alongside partner Bruce Tasker, Lewis-Francis helped steer his sled to an eighth place finish from 37 entrants.

The British pair clocked 1:53.75 from their two runs in a race that was won by German duo Johannes Lochner and Gregor Bermbach, who finished a second-and-a-half ahead of Lewis-Francis and Tasker.

The second-highest finishing British pair finished outside the top 20 and therefore did not have a second run.

Then on Saturday Lewis-Francis and Tasker placed 23rd.

Lewis-Francis spoke of his pride at finishing eighth in his first ever run at a major event.

"I'm delighted with that debut," he said. "It feels pretty good to have a top 10 finish first up. I've done a lot of training on ice over the last few weeks but racing is different and it's great to have the first one under my belt.

"Finishing eighth was a really good result for us – it was my first competitive run and the first time Bruce had raced the track as a driver so we're pretty happy with how it went.

"We've spoken as a squad about how important it is to get a fast start and we were the second fastest starters overall, so that's a big plus as well. It's something to really build on.

"I definitely felt a real buzz when I was standing on the start line and, to be totally honest, I loved it.

"It's obviously very different to athletics but the feeling you get in terms of representing your country and the sense of satisfaction you get from doing it well is exactly the same.

"I said when I started the sport that I wasn't just here to make up the numbers and that I knew I needed to prove myself to the rest of the squad. This is definitely a step in the right direction."

The Europe Cup will continue on Friday where 33-year-old Lewis-Francis and the British squad will head to the next German venue of Altenberg.

The first German stage then comes to an end on Saturday before the competition moves onto the Latvian city of Sigulda later in the month. They then head back to Germany where Konigssee is the next leg of the event.

Lewis-Francis is aiming to join a group of select athletes that have competed in the summer and winter Olympics.