Lamin Deen has expressed his hope that the four-man bobsleigh crew he led to a top-20 finish at the Winter Olympics in Sochi stays together – adamant 2015 can be a big year for them.
Deen drove the British number two four-man crew of himself, John Baines, Ben Simons and Andrew Matthews to 19th in Sochi – an impressive performance considering they've spent just four weeks together.
It followed a 23rd-place finish in the two-man for Deen earlier at the Games where he was joined by Baines, who replaced the injured Craig Pickering, while Andrews was his cover in the four-man.
And, with former sprinter Pickering to come back into the mix once fit, Deen is full of belief that they can make a name for themselves in the season that follows the Olympics.
"It would be nice to stay as a crew. These guys that we are competing against, some of them have been a crew for two, three years – our British No.1 crew have been together for nearly four years," said Deen.
"As a crew we have been together for four weeks. We have shown what we can do out here and hopefully in the summer, if we can stay as a crew, we can do big things next year.
"There is an ambition here to be better. Each heat, each run, each season. It has been hot and cold and the driving has been a bit mixed but we've been improving on the start all the way.
"First there were a few problems at the top of the track and then at the bottom but looking at the field everyone apart from the top three had a few problems on the track at some point.
"The ice deteriorates fast in the warm weather, but because of the positions we started in the second set of runs, it wasn't so damaging. But definitely going off 18th – there is a clear three tenths difference in the track."
Deen only assumed a role as a pilot after the last Winter Olympics in Vancouver in 2010 and was afforded help by John Jackson's number one crew to realise his Games ambition last month.
For Deen to compete at the Olympics completes a remarkable life story that has seen him flirt with the law, join the army and serve as a Queen's Guardsman – and he was proud of his achievements in Sochi.
"It has been fantastic, it has been a long, long road for me and the boys, every individual guy has had their problems but we are all here together as a team," he added.
"For me starting as a pilot four years ago after Vancouver and being here and driving two and four-man and being in the top 20 in the world is great."
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